Washington called on to slash tariffs on steel

The United Kingdom's trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, sat down with United States' commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, on Wednesday as London continued to push for better trading conditions with Washington.

Trevelyan, who met chief US trade negotiator Katherine Tai in Washington on Tuesday, knows a full free-trade agreement will take time and has been pushing for more immediate reductions in tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Reuters news agency reported.

Quoting an unnamed senior UK official, Reuters said Trevelyan wants import taxes on British goods trimmed back by the end of the year.

She reportedly told her US counterparts pressure has been building in London for retaliatory tariffs on US goods, if a deal cannot be found soon.

The UK, which has been eager to strike trade deals with other nations since its Jan 31, 2020 exit from the European Union, has also expressed an interest in joining a US-EU pact signed in October that allows some EU-produced metal to enter the US without tariff s.

Tai, however, said the US is focused on cutting excess production.

Her office said: "The ambassador emphasized the United States' commitment to working with like-minded partners to address nonmarket excess capacity in the steel and aluminum sectors, ensure the industry's long-term viability, and address the carbon intensity of steel and aluminum production."

Ironically, Washington began talks last month with Tokyo about Japan potentially joining the steel and aluminum pact that ensures some items avoid US tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.

With President Joe Biden having said a free-trade deal with the UK is a low priority, Britain has sought deals with individual US states and in specific sectors. London has struck deals with several other nations.

However, the CityAM newspaper reported on Wednesday that some of the UK's post-Brexit trade deals may have been signed too quickly in the eyes of the National Audit Office. The office, which is known as the NAO, is an independent parliamentary spending watchdog.

It says in a new report "the speed and intensity of … negotiations" for new trade deals had compressed the "time available for analysis to support decision-making, and for consultation with Parliament, stakeholders, and the wider public".

The opposition Labour Party has said post-Brexit deals with faraway nations, including Australia and New Zealand, will do little for the UK economy.

The Guardian newspaper added that, while London has signed 70 trade deals with non-EU countries since leaving the bloc, most have simply been a reestablishment of terms that existed when the UK was part of the bloc.

The Times newspaper noted the NAO urged the government to focus on ensuring post-Brexit trade agreements deliver benefits for businesses and consumers, and for it to avoid pursuing too many deals at the same time, which it said could lead to insufficient resources being allocated to pre-deal consultations and, therefore, poor deals.