United States Tariffs: Steel and Aluminium

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Tuesday 13th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fairhead]

There are studies available. I mentioned a US trade body which represents downstream industries that think they will be negatively affected and that the net effect on US jobs will also be negative—its study is already a public document. We are trying to avoid protectionist measures that stop the further development of economic trade and of developing countries. The latter could provide a ratchet effect and bring us all up together.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, the Statement explains at length how the Americans have made an assessment of the strategic requirement for a steel industry. That begs the question of why we have not made such an assessment. Do the Government believe that there is a strategic requirement for a viable steel industry in this country?

[Baroness Fairhead]

There is a question around whether it is a strategic national interest element, as the noble Lord mentioned, but we would question the President’s argument for it. I think that a lot of people would also question the figure of 80%. In terms of this country, we believe in open and free trade and that we should be protecting our industry to make sure that the sector is not the victim of bad practice, which is what the rules-based regime does. We are also trying to support our industry by making sure that we adjust for any requirements that we put on it. For example, the Government have compensated the UK steel industry to the tune of more than £200 million for the additional costs linked to the climate change levy and the renewables targets. We believe that we should allow open and free trade and that we should protect robustly our businesses so that they are able to compete on a level playing field, and we will support them in any way we can to do so.