Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate's Statement of Intended Final Determination published 19 May 2021, when she plans to respond to the recommendations of the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate on the UK steel industry; and what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of that analysis by representative bodies and trade unions in the UK steel industry.

The independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) will be formally established in June and will operate at arms-length from the Department for International Trade. Through its temporary precursor, the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate, it has been engaging with interested parties and others throughout its review of the steel safeguard measure. The review began in October 2020.

The publication of their Statement of Intended Preliminary Decision on 19^th May provides an opportunity for domestic producers and others to comment on their findings before they make a recommendation to my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade.

When a recommendation is received, the Secretary of State may only accept or reject it, and cannot amend the details of the TRA’s recommendation. Under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, the Secretary of State does not have powers to impose measures unless the TRA provides a recommendation to do so, which she may then accept.

We still expect that the review will conclude before the safeguard measure is due to expire at the end of June. The Secretary of State, fellow Ministers and I continue to engage with the industry and others.