UK rushes forward plans for £2.5bn steel investment after Trump announces tariffs

US president’s announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of schedule

The government has rushed forward plans for a £2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday – several weeks before schedule – in a sign of how Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth. Speaking to the Observer, Reynolds said that, even before Trump’s return to the White House, the government was determined to bolster and expand the UK steel industry, but the US president’s actions had made the need to act more urgent. “The context, both at home and abroad, is behind the sense of urgency that we are demonstrating by bringing forward publication of the strategy.”

Referring to the Trump tariffs, he added: “This is clearly a further challenge but it makes bringing forward the strategy even more important.” The UK has so far refused to join the EU and Canada in threatening immediate retaliation if the US pushes ahead and imposes the 25% import taxes next month. Britain exports about 209,000 tonnes of steel to the US every year and imports about 16,000, making it the second-biggest export market after the EU. “It is in neither of our interests to have these tariffs,” said Reynolds, who said he remains optimistic that talks with US officials could lead to a resolution before serious damage is done. The director general of industry body UK Steel, Gareth Stace, said last week that the US action would stifle UK exports and damage Britain’s balance of trade at a time when global protectionism was on the rise. “The US is our second-largest export market after the EU, and this move threatens more than £400m of steel exports [each year],” Stace said. In its election manifesto, the then Labour opposition announced plans to spend £2.5bn in order to “rebuild the UK steel industry”. The money would sit alongside a separate £500m package for Tata Steel to part-fund new steel production at Port Talbot in south Wales.