UK seeks sustainable alliance with EU to counter China – Politico

London hopes that this will help to obtain exemptions from the new protective measures of the bloc

The UK is pushing for a Western alliance with the EU to limit China’s dominance in the global steel market, according to Politico, citing sources familiar with the talks.

London hopes that coordination could help Britain avoid new tariffs on metal imports that Brussels plans to introduce and obtain exemptions.

The idea of creating an alliance, which may include Washington, is based on coordinating tariff policy and granting preferential tariffs on steel trade to its members.

One of the publication’s sources, an EU official, said that the concept of a steel club has been around for quite some time, but now looks more attractive. He added that the EU and the UK are already cooperating in multilateral forums, such as the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity. The parties also agreed to coordinate future carbon taxes on imports of steel and other products.

US Trade Representative Jamie Greer called for stronger coordination against Chinese steel in early October. He expressed the view that current international trade rules are inadequate and questioned the political will of foreign members to take action.

It should be recalled that the British steel sector warned of a potential existential crisis as a result of new EU protective measures, as this market accounts for almost 80% of the country’s total steel exports. Even before the proposal was announced, metallurgists pointed out that the reduction in quotas posed a greater threat to them than US tariffs. Industry organizations believe that the government should act quickly and use trade relations with the European Union.

As GMK Center reported earlier, on October 7, the European Commission presented a proposal to protect the EU steel industry from the unfair impact of global excess production capacity. It includes limiting duty-free imports to 18.3 million tons per year, which is a 47% reduction compared to the 2024 steel quotas, and doubling the duty rate on products outside the quota to 50%. This proposal will replace the current steel safeguard measures, which expire in June 2026.