Tariffs Will Not Save Britain’s Steel Industry – OpEd |
The Government’s approach to the UK’s steel industry has always looked like a cross between inveterate, unshakeable optimism and the panicked thrashings of a drowning man clutching for a flotation aid.
An extremely charitable observer would argue that the Government had always had a very clear aim: to preserve Britain’s steel industry in order to safeguard employment in the sector and to provide resilience in manufacturing a product vital for growth and security.
A more cynical mind might counter that someone who makes a wish as a penny is flipped down a well has a very clear aim. Without a practical, sustainable and realistic plan to achieve that aim, such airy, wouldn’t-it-be-nice ambitions are politically worthless at best.
This week the Business and Trade Secretary, Peter Kyle, unveiled Labour’s latest gambit. From July, import quotas for tariff-free steel will be reduced by 60%, and imports above those levels will be subject to a 50% tariff. In other words, when facing a crisis, the Government’s response is protectionism.
It is not alone in this. The exclusionary regime brings the UK broadly into line with the United States, the EU and Canada. That does not necessarily mean it is the right approach, but we should not underestimate the challenge facing the Government. It had already agreed to provide £500 million towards the expected total cost of £1.25 billion of Tata Steel building electric arc furnaces at its steelworks in Port........