1 of 3 | U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (L) shakes the hand of Britain's International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan on Tuesday when they inked a deal that rolls back Trump-era tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum. Photo courtesy of
March 22 (UPI) -- The United States and Britain inked a trade deal Tuesday evening to remove Trump administration-era tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in exchange for London to lift retaliatory levies worth hundreds of millions of dollars on U.S. products, like whiskey, blue jeans and motorcycles.
The trade accord was made in Washington, D.C., following of two months of talks between U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and her British counterpart, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, over trade issues that arose between the two sides during the Trump administration.
The business relations between the allies soured in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump imposed import tariffs of 25% and 10% on foreign-made steel and aluminum, respectively, in an effort to protect American industry workers.
In retaliation, the European Union, which Britain was a member of until 2020, imposed tariffs valued at more than $500 million on U.S. exports, that include distilled spirits, various agriculture products and consumer goods. After leaving the union, Britain maintained those same taxes as the steel and aluminum tariffs still applied.
When the agreement comes into effect June 1, those differences will seemingly be removed as the United States will allow "historically based sustainable volumes" of the two metals to enter its market without the imposed taxes with the British retaliatory levies against U.S. products lifted.
The accord though stipulates that any British steel company owned by a Chinese entity must undertake an audit to assess the influence of the Beijing government in an effort by the United States to work with allies "to address unfair practices by countries like China," the Commerce Department said.
Raimondo described the deal as "historic" and framed it as one that will not only protect American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries but one that will ease inflationary pressure Americans currently feeling.
"By allowing for a flow of duty-free steel and aluminum from the U.K., we further ease the gap between supply and demand for these products in the United States," she said in a statement. "And by removing the U.K.'s retaliatory tariffs, we re-open the British market to beloved American products."
In Britain, Trevelyan said the deal will benefit her steel and aluminum sectors, which employee more than 80,000 people.
"Hopefully we can now move forward and focus on deepening our thriving trading relationship with the U.S.," she said in a statement.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the agreement was "fantastic news."
Meanwhile, Both countries' Chamber of Commerce welcomed the agreement.
In Britain, the chamber said the deal will aid businesses and consumers globe-wide combating rises in trade and living costs.
"People in the U.K. will also benefit from the ending of our rebalancing measures on products like U.S. jeans, too," William Bain, head of trade policy at the BCC said in a statement.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce though added that further action is needed.
"When these tariffs were imposed in 2018, the Chamber warned they 'would directly harm American manufacturers, provoke widespread retaliation from our trading partners and leave virtually untouched the true problem of Chinese steel and aluminum overcapacity.' All of that came to pass," Myron Brilliant, the camber's executive vice president and head of International Affairs, said in a statement. "This deal marks a step toward remedying these problems."
