The United States has announced an agreement with the United Kingdom to end international tariffs on steel and aluminum

The United States announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with the United Kingdom to remove tariffs on iron and aluminum imports imposed in 2018 during Donald Trump’s administration, citing national security concerns.

“By allowing tax-free flow of steel and aluminum from the UK, we have further reduced the gap between supply and demand for these products in the US,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raymondo said in a statement. “By removing the UK revenge fees, we have reopened the UK market for beloved American products,” he added.

In particular, the new agreement described the joint statement as “allowing for the import of historical and standard quantities of British steel and aluminum products without the use of Section 232 tariffs”.

The announcement in support of US Trade Representative (USDR) Catherine Tai described it as a “fundamental agreement” that would “remove retaliatory taxes on more than $ 500 million in US exports to the UK.”

“This is great news and a welcome boost to our steel and aluminum industries,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted. In January, the two countries announced that talks had begun to end the controversy, which has been handed down from generation to generation since the Trump era.

The UK was one of several countries that imposed a 25% surcharge on steel and a 10% surcharge on aluminum in June 2018 amid a trade war. The Biden administration had already reached agreements with the EU in October and Japan in early February.

In particular, US officials have described the agreement between Washington and London as “allowing for the import of historical and standard quantities of British steel and aluminum products without the use of Section 232 tariffs”.

– ‘Relationship of the 21st Century’ –

The status of the current deal is fading compared to the big free trade deal that Boris Johnson wants.

Following Brexit, one of the priorities of the British, effective January 1, 2021, was the signing of a bilateral agreement with the United States. The Biden administration allowed the process to die.

The United States stipulated a possible agreement in strict compliance with the Northern Ireland Peace Accords. The British Minister of International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyn, today admitted that London had been seeking an agreement with Washington “for some time” and that his government had not surrendered.

The British Minister emphasized that the risk was not only the elimination of tariffs but also the response to the need to “build a 21st century trade relationship between the two great nations with common values.”

Anne-Marie and Catherine Toy have said they will continue their business conversation in Scotland in April.