Today the Conservative shadow industry minister Harriett Baldwin was granted an Urgent Question forcing the Government to respond to President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel imports into the U.S.
Martin expressed some surprise that the Government had not a ready response bearing in mind the President’s comments in recent weeks and said that this is yet another concern to his constituents who work at the Scunthorpe works and are facing uncertainty ahead of the Government’s response to British Steel’ future plans.
The exchange is as follows:
Martin Vickers
(Brigg and Immingham) (Con)
The Minister is quite right that we do not want a knee-jerk reaction, but I gently point out to him that this announcement should not have come as a surprise, bearing in mind the President’s comments both before and after the inauguration. Many of my constituents who work at the Scunthorpe steelworks already face an uncertain future, and this will just increase their concerns. Can the Minister give an assurance that he will report back to the House as soon as possible about the meetings that will take place over the next day or two?
Minister Douglas Alexander
There are plenty of opportunities for Ministers to be held accountable in relation to the dialogue that we have started, and that we continue, with steel producers in the United Kingdom.
Turning to the hon. Gentleman’s initial point about whether this announcement has come as a surprise, candidly, it has not. However, it is also fair to recognise that the new President has a speciality in generating uncertainty—part of his style of negotiations is creating uncertainty as to what will happen next. As I sought to suggest in my opening answers, we have answers on steel today, but the proclamation that emerged overnight did not give us answers on aluminium. In those circumstances, it is right and reasonable to be mindful of the statements that have been made, which I can assure the House that we were, and to undertake analysis, which I can assure the House we are also continuing to review and reach a judgment on.
At the same time, we should recognise that the date on which these tariffs come into effect is 12 March. As a consequence, there is a window of opportunity to not only engage with the workforce and the companies to ensure that we better understand exactly what they are looking for in light of these specific measures, but critically, to engage directly with the Trump Administration. That is work to which our ambassador is already turning his mind.
Speaking later Martin said “This is a worrying, though not surprising development and I hope that ministers will press the U.S. administration hard and, hopefully, gain some concessions for the British steel industry.”
