-Caveat Lector-
From
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1857000/1857163.stm
}}}>Begin
Wednesday, 6 March, 2002, 12:02 GMT
Blair promises action on US steel
US steel workers have lobbied vociferously
Prime Minister Tony Blair says that retaliatory action will be taken with the aim of
reversing the US tariffs on steel imports "as soon as possible".
The official spokesman for Mr Blair, who wrote to and spoke on the telephone to US
president George Bush last week, said the UK and EU believed the US action broke
world trade rules.
The strength of the relationship is not whether we agree on everything, but whether
we can handle issues like this
Downing Street on the US/UK relations
Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who told the BBC she was "bitterly
disappointed" with the tariffs, is to make a statement to MPs about the affair later on
Wednesday.
She has already pledged that the UK would be working with the European Union to
take protective counter- measures: "We won't stand by and simply let them dump
their problems onto us."
The US move was announced as Plaid Cymru accused Labour Party backer
Lakshmi Mittal and his LMN company of lobbying for import duties and "undermining"
British interests.
Mr Mittal was at the centre of the 'Steelgate' row when it emerged he gave Labour
�125,000 shortly before Tony Blair backed his takeover of a Romanian steel works.
'Painful process'
Attacking the US action Ms Hewitt said: "This goes completely in the wrong direction
and we'll oppose it just as hard as we can."
US President George W Bush introduced the tariffs as part of a three-year plan to
help the ailing US steel industry, which has been struggling to compete with cheaper
products from abroad.
President Bush sparked anger in UK
Ms Hewitt said Britain and the EU would be complaining to the WTO.
She added: "We're going to stand by our steel producers, because our steel workers
are now some of the most productive in the world. They have gone through a very
painful process of restructuring.
"And it is frankly because the Americans have not been willing to go through the
necessary process of restructuring and modernisation and making their industry
more productive that they've got a problem now."
'US should set example'
Downing Street, while attacking the tariffs, said the row would not harm the "special
relationship" between the UK and the US: "The strength of the relationship is not
whether we agree on everything, but whether we can handle issues like this."
"We recognise the US steel industry has to restructure, but we do not believe it is in
the interests of the world economy that it should impose tariffs," the spokesman said.
Free trade really means... global free trade, not American free trade
CBI director-general Digby Jones
"We believe that tariffs are against not only the interests of countries such as ours
and Europe, but also against the interests of US consumers themselves."
Last year the US imported 27.4 million tonnes of steel, of which 500,000 tonnes was
from the UK.
Confederation of British Industry director-general Digby Jones warned that US tariffs
would put UK jobs in steel and other manufacturing firms at risk.
"The US should be setting an example to the world about what free trade really
means. It means global free trade, not American free trade," he said.
'Declaration of war'
UK producer Corus, which sells about 5% of its products to the US, urged the
European Union to mount protective counter-measures.
And it also blamed the US steel industry for creating the problems which led to the
tariffs in the first place.
Tony Blair has written to Mr Bush and spoken to him on the phone
"US steel producers' problems are caused by a failure to restructure and consolidate,
not by imports which actually declined by 20% in 2001," the spokesman said.
Nick Clegg, East Midlands Euro MP for the Liberal Democrats, said the move was
"shocking" and an "a form of economic vandalism".
Union leader Bill Morris said: "The 30% tariff is a declaration of trade war on the UK
and Europe steel industry."
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