Britain has actively lobbied to form such a steel alliance with the EU.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon — The European Union is exploring the creation of a Western steel alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom to counter China’s industrial overcapacity, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič confirmed on Saturday.
“Wouldn’t it be better to have among the very important economic actors, or G7 countries — or between the U.S. and the EU to start with — [a] common approach to address the global overcapacities [so we] can ring-fence our steel industry?” he said on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Cameroon.
Britain has actively lobbied to form such an alliance with the EU — with Trade Minister Chris Bryant embarking on a charm offensive earlier this month with visits to Brussels, Paris and the Netherlands.
“I know that all of our U.K. friends would be very much interested in such a cooperation,” Šefčovič said.
The U.K. has long pushed for inclusion in a Western steel bloc, in the hopes that it could help Britain dodge the new 50 percent tariffs Brussels plans to impose. Britain has already moved in the same direction — tightening quotas on steel imports and raising tariffs above those quotas to 50 percent.
“Because of global overcapacities, we have to adopt different safeguard measures,” said Šefčovič. “Americans did it. Canadians followed. We had to adopt our safeguard measures to simply save our steel industry. U.K. is following suit,” he said.