Thursday, October 09, 2025
Another Brexit crisis
The paper says that the European Commission has revealed plans to double the current level of 25 per cent, while reducing tariff-free import volumes to 18.3 million tonnes a year – a 47 per cent reduction:
The director general of UK Steel said the fresh tariffs would be “devastating” to the industry, which currently exports 78 per cent of its steel to the EU. The increase comes after the industry is still dealing with the impact of 25 per cent tariffs on imports to the US, imposed by Donald Trump.
The prime minister has said he is in discussions with both the US and EU about the tariffs, saying the government is strongly supportive of the steel industry.
Gareth Stace, of UK Steel, warned the government must “go all-out” to secure quotas for the UK or “potentially face disaster”.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “This is perhaps the biggest crisis the UK steel industry has ever faced.
“The US has closed off its steel market to imports, and today, what we’ve seen is the EU proposing to do the same.
“We’re seeing a rapid rise of protectionist trade measures all over the world. And let me tell you, the last country to defend its steel industry will be the first country to deindustrialise. This is a massive issue for our sector.
“If the UK government can’t get round the table with the EU and convince the EU that we’re their friend, not their enemy, and then carve out a reasonable quota for UK exports into the EU, then we will see job losses in our sector.
“We will never, if we can’t get a deal, be the same steel sector in the UK ever again if we cannot trade with our biggest trading partner.”
This is going to be another blow to the steel industry and in particular communities in Port Talbot, already reeling from a huge number of redundancies. In many ways though this is yet another Brexit crisis.
If we were still in the single market the UK would be on the right side of these tariffs. Perhaps that is what Keir Starmer should be negotiating.
