The
administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25%
and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on the European
Union in 2018. The tariffs were withdrawn in October of this
year, but they remain in place for Britain due to its exit from
the EU.
In a communication seen by the newspaper, a U.S. Commerce
Department official was quoted as saying that talks with the UK
on easing metals tariffs could not move ahead.
The official cited U.S. concerns about British threats to
trigger emergency clause Article 16, the report said https://on.ft.com/3olxsUh,
especially from the U.S. Congress.
Article 16 is an emergency brake that allows the UK or EU to
seek to suspend parts of the Brexit agreement that introduced
some checks on the movement of goods to Northern Ireland from
mainland Britain if they lead to persistent difficulties.
The FT said that the United States had informed the UK about the
reason for the delay.
The UK department of trade said: "We do not see any connection
with this particular issue and the Northern Ireland Protocol and
it will in no way affect the UK's approach. That is because
significant changes are needed to the Protocol in order to
protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and Northern
Ireland's place in the UK internal market".
A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I think it's
important not to conflate those two issues."
"On steel tariffs, we are working closely with the Biden
administration. It's encouraging they are taking steps to
de-escalate the issue and we are very focused on agreeing a
resolution that removes damaging tariffs," he told reporters.
The United States has expressed grave concerns that disagreement
between London and Brussels over the implementation of the 2020
Brexit treaty could undermine the Good Friday accord, which
effectively ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
In September, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
cautioned that there could be no post-Brexit trade deal with
Washington if the Northern Ireland peace agreement was
destroyed.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma, Shubham Kalia and Kanishka Singh in
Bengaluru; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Shri Navaratnam and
Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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