US skips hike in UK steel and aluminum tariffs as both countries eye quick trade deal

By Alistair Smout and Andrea Shalal

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday announced it would skip doubling steel and aluminum tariffs for Britain, hours after the UK government said the two countries agreed on the need to implement a tariff relief deal as soon as possible.

The U.S. announcement, which exempts British steel and aluminum from a doubling of tariffs to 50%, came in a proclamation signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday that will raise metals tariffs for other countries from June 4.

British trade minister Jonathan Reynolds and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met in Paris on Tuesday during a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“The UK was the first country to secure a trade deal with the U.S. earlier this month and we remain committed to protecting British business and jobs across key sectors," a UK government spokesperson said.

“We’re pleased that as a result of our agreement with the U.S., UK steel will not be subject to these additional tariffs. We will continue to work with the U.S. to implement our agreement, which will see the 25% U.S. tariffs on steel removed.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump on May 8 agreed to reduce tariffs on UK imports of cars and steel to the U.S., with Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on beef and ethanol, but implementation of the deal has been delayed.

Industry body UK Steel had earlier warned that doubled tariffs would be a "body blow" to the British steel sector.

Britain's trade ministry said Greer and Reynolds met to discuss the pace of implementation of the May 8 bilateral trade deal, and both sides agreed that businesses and consumers in each country needed to start feeling its benefits.

"The pair discussed their shared desire to implement the Economic Prosperity Deal, including implementing agreements on sectoral tariffs as soon as possible," Britain's trade ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

Greer's office had no immediate comment on the meeting.

Before the meeting, Starmer's spokesperson said, once implemented, the deal with Washington would eliminate tariffs on the "majority of steel products" exported to the United States, and that "we'd continue to expect that to be the case" regardless of the 50% tariff announced by Trump.

He also said that industry minister Sarah Jones was meeting with representatives from the steel sector on Tuesday.

Asked earlier if the 50% tariffs would go ahead on Wednesday, Greer, speaking French with reporters in Paris, said: "We'll see."

Reynolds is on a three-day trip to Paris and Brussels. After meetings with Group of Seven and OECD counterparts in Paris, he will hold talks with EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic. 

Britain struck deals with the U.S. and the European Union - its two biggest trading partners - last month, but both are political pacts rather than formal trade agreements, and the details of their implementation have not been set.

With the EU deal, plans to remove red tape on the food sector are yet to be finalised. In advance of that agreement coming into force, Britain on Monday said it would scrap border checks on fruit and vegetables imported from the EU that had been due to be effective beginning in July.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London, Leigh Thomas in Paris and Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)