US Steel and Aluminium Tariffs

Debate between Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Wednesday 12th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for raising this issue. The steel strategy consultation remains open until 30 March, at which point we will analyse responses received. The consultation is a key step forward in developing the steel strategy, ensuring it best promotes long-term, sustainable growth that will provide benefits to communities across the UK. It will provide us with a clear evidence base on the needs of the steel sector and its customers by leveraging a wide range of views and expertise and will bring those views to the heart of steel-making. We are committed to bringing forward the steel strategy in the spring, and we will learn from the lessons of that strategy.

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, is it not the case that the reckless and ill-thought-out measures being taken by President Trump will only damage the US economy itself—they will not prevent imports but will harm immensely the steel-using industries that are the main market for the US steel industry? It is an extremely short-sighted measure by President Trump. His having taken that measure is no reason for us to follow in such a short-sighted policy. We have the much more important objective of trying to negotiate better trade terms with the United States. These are general tariffs, not ones against the UK in particular, and the Government are quite right not to react by imposing tariffs ourselves.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I very much thank the noble Lord for that intervention. Let us be clear that industry here does not want to see a trade war with both sides escalating the situation. Standing up for industry means finding a solution, and we are working on that solution. The UK and the US have a strong economic relationship which is fair, balanced and reciprocal. We have £1.2 trillion invested in each other’s economies, supporting more than 2.5 million jobs across both countries. It is important that we maintain and build on those relationships. As I said before, cool heads are aware of and monitoring very carefully what is going on, but we do not want to do anything reciprocal at this stage.

Tariffs: Canada and Mexico

Debate between Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what communications they have had with the governments of Canada, Mexico and other countries about the decision of the President of the United States to impose tariffs on certain of their exports.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Jones of Whitchurch) (Lab)]

My Lords, we have noted President Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the subsequent 30-day suspension agreement. That is a matter for the US Administration, and it is not for me to comment on another country’s bilateral trade relationships. We respect other countries’ dialogue with the US and we will not intervene. However, the UK Government are prepared to take action to mitigate the potential economic impact on our businesses and consumers. We will continue to monitor developments across the Atlantic.

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply and welcome the fact that, in his talks with the President of the United States, the Prime Minister managed to obtain at least a grudging hint that the UK might be exempt from proposed tariffs. Will she not agree, if there is a fully fledged trade war that affects our trading partners, that it will have an impact on the world economy and on our economy and growth rate, and make it more difficult to do what we want to do on defence spending? Secondly, if, as our newly appointed ambassador to the United States has said, there is a prospect of a UK-US technology deal, is it not extremely important that we take advantage of the extra flexibility that we have outside the EU to have a regulatory regime that is not hostile to the industries of the future but actually sees them as an opportunity for innovation?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

The noble Lord raised several questions there. On the question of the UK and US, we have a strong economic relationship that is fair, balanced and reciprocal. As noble Lords know, the Prime Minister and President Trump discussed that on 27 February, when they agreed that we would deepen our relationship and have tasked teams to work together on a trade deal focused on tech. This is absolutely fundamental to us; the Prime Minister has been clear that he will not make any false choices between our allies—it is about our national interests. As the noble Lord rightly says, the Prime Minister has said that we are going further and we will work on an economic deal with advanced technology at its core—but these are early days to comment any further on this. Obviously, we will set out more details as discussions evolve.