UK Seeks Urgent Clarity on US Steel Tariffs Amid Trade Deal Uncertainty
Britain’s business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds is pressing the TRUMP administration for immediate action on a proposed zero-tariff deal for UK steel exports. The agreement, signed May 8 as part of the Economic Prosperity Deal, promised to eliminate existing 25% tariffs but remains unimplemented—leaving £400 million in annual exports vulnerable to Trump’s planned 50% rate hike.
Reynolds will confront US trade representative Jamieson Greer at the OECD summit in Paris, demanding concrete timelines. The non-binding nature of the deal and Washington’s silence have left British officials scrambling. "The steel situation is still unclear," admitted one official, acknowledging that typical trade implementations take months—time the UK industry doesn’t have.
