WASHINGTON, December 8, Reuters - British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan invited U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to visit London in January to make progress on removing U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and the threat of UK retaliatory tariffs.
After the UK minister's meeting with U.S Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday, Trevelyan and Raimondo met in Washington on Wednesday.
After the meeting, Britain and the US said they discussed finding a path early in the new year to engage in consultations on steel and aluminum, with the aim to combat global excess capacity and address outstanding concerns on U.S. tariffs and UK countermeasures. Resolving the dispute would benefit workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and would remove the need for the UK to levy tariffs on U.S. goods, according to a statement issued by the British embassy.
She said she hoped that Raimondo's visit would allow both allies to make progress on the steel and aluminum tariffs and focus on taking our thriving trading relationship to the next level. A senior British official said earlier Wednesday that Trevelyan had hoped to make progress on the issue before Jan. 1, citing growing pressure in Britain for it to raise its retaliatory tariffs on whiskey and other U.S. products.
Britain, which exited the European Union on January 31, 2020, is keen to join a U.S. EU pact https://www.reuters. In October, com world us-eu expected-announce deal-ending steel-aluminum tariff-dispute sources-say - 2021 -- 10 - 30 struck that allows duty-free entry for limited volumes of EU-produced metals into the United States, while retaining U.S. Section 232 has tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum.
The US-EU deal will cause increased pressure on British firms on January 1, when tariffs on EU goods drop. The EU dropped retaliatory tariffs against the United States after the deal with Washington.