Britain to set out plan on steel trade safeguards

Britain will set out its plan on trade safeguards for steel on Wednesday, days after it proposed broader tariffs to protect local steelmakers in a move that could breach international trade rules. Trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan will make a statement to parliament on steel safeguards after 1130 GMT, the leader of the House of Commons said on Twitter.

Britain will set out its plan on trade safeguards for steel on Wednesday, days after it proposed broader tariffs to protect local steelmakers in a move that could breach international trade rules.

Trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan will make a statement to parliament on steel safeguards after 1130 GMT, the leader of the House of Commons said on Twitter. Such safeguards can include import restrictions ranging from tariffs to quotas. Britain last week proposed to extend for a further two years a package of tariffs and quotas on five steel products.

A move to extend steel tariffs could breach World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations and upset local manufacturers who rely on overseas steel and say domestic steelmakers have failed to meet demand. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has argued that Britain should not remove tariffs unilaterally without other European nations doing it too. Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng has said there was a "strong argument" to support the domestic steel industry because other G7 nations were doing the same.

The Times newspaper reported this week without citing a source that Trevelyan supported extending tariffs but had warned that nations including India, Turkey and South Korea would be entitled to retaliate with their own safeguard measures. A year ago, the government introduced new rules to protect the local steel industry, which employs nearly 34,000 people and makes some $2 billion in annual turnover.

Britain last year retained quotas and tariffs it inherited from the European Union on 10 categories of steel for three years. But on five products, the safeguards were extended on a temporary basis for one year.