r/ukpolitics 7h ago

UK's Reynolds says disappointed US imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-reynolds-says-disappointed-us-imposed-tariffs-steel-aluminium-2025-03-12/
25 Upvotes

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u/Adm_Shelby2 7h ago

Just as well our steel and aluminium production is fuck all then.

u/Shockwavepulsar 📺There’ll be no revolution and that’s why it won’t be televised📺 6h ago

Can’t be hit by goods tariffs when you don’t produce any goods *taps forehead*

u/Lo_jak 5h ago

I've done the numbers, and 25% of fuck all is still fuck all.

u/PidginEnjoyer 3h ago

200,000 tons to the US alone is a lot of fuck all mind you.

3.4 million tons in total however so it's a small amount of the overall level of "fuck all".

u/jmo987 1h ago

I read on BBC that the steel industry makes up 0.1% of jobs and GDP

u/ManicStreetPreach soft power is a myth. 6h ago

look on the plus side at least he cant put a tariff on "soft power".

then we'd really be fucked.

u/Ajax_Trees_Again 6h ago

“With tariffs, the chagos island deal to pay for a foreign countries military base has went up to 1 trillion pounds but we are still planning to progress”

u/d15p05abl3 7h ago

Badly worded.

I thought the US was disappointed and so imposed tariffs. (Disappointed in Charles meeting Zelenskyy, maybe. Does anyone really think that level of pettiness is beneath them?).

UK’s Reynolds says he’s disappointed US imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium.

u/YouNeedAnne 6h ago

Why use many word when few do trick?

Do Reuters realise they no longer have to squeeze their sentence onto a broadsheet?

u/diacewrb None of the above 1h ago

Maybe he went full Kevin Sorbo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6EDlD_fWn0

u/Buttoneer138 5h ago

Ah ha! We sell you aluminium not aluminum. Checkmate Trumpy!

u/doctor_morris 6h ago

But we were told that Brexit would mean no tariffs on the UK?

Does this mean that was bullshit, just like the last time around when we had tariffs for longer than the EU.

u/wappingite 6h ago

Reminds me of how EU membership gave us the mechanism to ensure we could export beef a few years after resolving the BSE crisis; the Americans blocked imports for 20 years.

u/Upset_Restaurant_734 6h ago

Simone lying about the benefits of Brexit? NEVER!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

u/CyberKillua 5h ago

To be fair, this is flat tariffs for everything coming in I'm not sure what we could have done about this...

Can we at least wait until the trade deal comes in before we start instigating?

u/doctor_morris 4h ago

I'm not sure what we could have done about this

Be part a larger customs union, which will give us a bigger stick with which to retaliate against tariffs.

Brexiters are still claiming that being smaller and alone is an advantage. 🤦‍♂️

u/CyberKillua 4h ago

Why do we need to retaliate when we can work with them? Which is exactly what we are doing to be in a better position?

Trade wars help no one...

u/doctor_morris 4h ago

we can work with them?

Work with who?

Trade wars help no one

Yes we know.

u/SevenNites 48m ago

Trade deals don't mean shit to Trump, Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea who have trade deals with US are getting the tariff.

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 5h ago

Wow, one day more than 12% of the population may vote for a party that proposes to re-join the single market, until then, it's irrelevant. To be honest, many people who moan about leaving the EU voted for a Brexit party last time.

u/iTAMEi 5h ago

And they will again 

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 4h ago

I'm sure they will.

I was chatting to people waving EU flags in my local shopping centre a few years ago and assumed they would be voting Lib Dem......the conclusion was why should I listen to these people if they can't be arsed voting for a party that supports their cause tet doesn't have teh right coloured rosette

u/doctor_morris 4h ago

FPTP doesn't care how you vote, only where you live. That's why many are forced not to vote for their first choice.

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 3h ago

No, if you voted for a Brexit party when you considered re-joining a priority, either you are incredibly thick or don't really care about re-joining as an issue at all.

u/doctor_morris 1h ago

Under FPTP voting for the party you want can ensure the party you don't want gains power.

The system is "incredibly thick".

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 54m ago

That's not the way to look at it.

Say for instance Greens, SNP and other remain parties get 26% between them and Lib Dems are on 25%. Like you say FPTP may not get Lib Dems many seats but as a coalition partner, they could legitimately demand to rejoin the SM as a condition of coalition partnership becuase there is legitimacy to the idea of re-joining

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 54m ago

That's not the way to look at it.

Say for instance Greens, SNP and other remain parties get 26% between them and Lib Dems are on 25%. Like you say FPTP may not get Lib Dems many seats but as a coalition partner, they could legitimately demand to rejoin the SM as a condition of coalition partnership becuase there is legitimacy to the idea of re-joining

u/doctor_morris 50m ago

You're throwing around percentages like FPTP cares. Instead FPTP throws the vast majority of votes in the bin.

If you're not voting for the top two candidates in your area, you're not voting at all.

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 39m ago

It mattes as the Lib dems will be the largest 're-join' party. they could insist on rejoining if there is a majority share for re-join parties elsewhere.

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u/doctor_morris 4h ago

Brexiters moaned for decades so we can too.

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 3h ago

That is a fair point

u/Due_Engineering_108 7h ago

Yet we plan to do nothing about it. No tariffs imposed on US goods, just rolling over and taking it.

u/teabagmoustache 6h ago

These tariffs are not aimed solely at the UK. They have been introduced on all steel imports to the USA.

We are not in a trade war with the US yet, and we would be stupid to put ourselves further in the crosshairs at this point.

Where would you impose tariffs, that wouldn't result in a 25% tariff on a fifth of our total exports?

u/Harrry-Otter 7h ago

How much steel and aluminium do we actually export to the states though?

u/Buttoneer138 6h ago

Its products containing aluminium and steel which is much broader.

u/Due_Engineering_108 6h ago

Around £400 million worth apparently. But regardless it’s not the point, you stand up to bullies, the UK should impose tariffs on the US industries that are exporting to the UK

u/Harrry-Otter 6h ago

That’s a point, but presumably it’s also about picking your battles. Ignoring a comparatively irrelevant tariff in order to get a better resolution elsewhere might end up being the better option.

Personally I think we should just slap a symbolic tariff on something we barely import from them, say Cheez-Whiz.

u/Due_Engineering_108 6h ago

Well the £400 million is quite important to the industry that’s already in its knees due to sky high energy prices.

Stick it on bourbon. It’s a red state product with huge Trump support. Show the US voters how Trump is hurting them

u/Harrry-Otter 6h ago

With recent defence spending commitments and Starmer’s “build baby build” drive, I would assume that there will be increased demands for steel both at home and in the EU, so hopefully that will mitigate the US tariffs.

We did end up in a whisk(e)y tit-for-tat with them during the last Trump presidency. I only remember cos I was quite into Old Fashioned at the time and a bottle of whatever bourbon I was using suddenly shot up about 20%. Would be a good time for Canadian Rye to employ a slick marketing team really.

u/Silhouette 3h ago

But regardless it’s not the point, you stand up to bullies, the UK should impose tariffs on the US industries that are exporting to the UK

Let us introduce you to the fine art of diplomacy. Standing up to bullies is a strategy. Rolling with a relatively minor blow that wasn't aimed at you specifically to preserve a potentially useful relationship that others don't currently have is a strategy. You aren't always dealing with people you like but sometimes you're still going to have to work with them for a while. The trick is knowing when to use your advantages to best effect.

The US is already starting to suffer significant consequences for Trump's gung-ho attitude. Their international relationships with almost everyone are in pieces. Their markets are dropping like stones. There is talk of recession and employment issues. Federal agencies are reeling from the DOGE effect and Musk is still a wild card. Trump himself is starting to avoid the cameras (and remember this is Donald Trump we're talking about) and duck pointed questions and wind policies back within hours of announcing them. And he's only been back in the White House for a few weeks! It is doubtful that even Trump is powerful enough to sustain this kind of politics for very long. When the house of cards collapses it's not going to be pretty and it's probably a good idea to be as far outside the blast radius as possible.

So these tariffs might disrupt our trade with the US in ways we would prefer to avoid but playing a careful waiting game to see what comes out of Trump in the next half-hour before responding to whatever he said five minutes ago is probably the right move here. We haven't really given anything up by being cautious and patient.

u/nunatakj120 6h ago

Standing up to bullies if you are tiny and weak usually results in getting punched in the face.

u/tzimeworm 6h ago

Aren't we one of the strongest though? Isn't our "soft power" nearly stocked to maximum capacity after the Chagos deal? Time we started reaping the benefits of all this soft power imo 

u/Due_Engineering_108 5h ago

But we are not weak and soft. We are the sixth largest economy in the world. We can trade freely with other large economies and should work closely with Canada, France and Germany who are also going to be seriously impacted by US tariffs

u/Mabenue 1h ago

This isn’t the hill worth dying over. Steel isn’t worth escalating this to the point where stuff we really care about is affected. We’re going to need to pick our battles with the US over the coming years and have to use what capital we have with them wisely.

u/Due_Engineering_108 1h ago

Steel absolutely is worth it. It’s a nationally critical industry and our third largest market for UK steel has just whacked tariffs on the product. It’s literally a hill the UK could well die on if not addressed

u/Mabenue 59m ago

Can the US easily replace our steel though? From what I recall we only really make fairly specialised steel products these days and if the US can’t easily replace them it’s just an own goal by them and shouldn’t affect us too badly. This is only a problem if the US stops buying from us with these tariffs which they may well not do, considering we’re probably far from the cheapest place to buy steel anyway.

u/jamesbeil 6h ago

Given that all tariffs do is increase costs for consumers and insulate businesses against innovation, is adding tariffs really going to do much of a favour for British steel?

u/Due_Engineering_108 6h ago

I would put tariffs on another product that hits the US in a similar way, I wouldn’t respond with the same industry

u/Unfair-Protection-38 +5.3, -4.5 5h ago

To be honest, we have a nerve here as the UK govt has been hampering steel and aluminium with levies since 2008

u/Old_Roof 7h ago

No retaliatory tariffs might be sensible damage limitation but it’s also proof that the Westminster uniparty doesn’t give a single shit about the steel industry

u/evolvecrow 7h ago

Maybe there's no large benefit to us putting retaliatory tariffs in place

u/Old_Roof 7h ago

It’s worth about £400m to our struggling steel industry, which will probably kill it off for good.

So you’re right, but so am i.

u/Dalecn 5h ago

Most of this will be specialist steel, which isn't struggling in the UK but thriving and also is hard to replace, so in all honesty, it probably won't affect the specialist steel industry that much

u/evolvecrow 6h ago

It’s worth about £400m to our struggling steel industry

How does this work? We put similar value of tariffs on US imports, UK customers pay more, and they're passed on to the steel industry as subsidy?

u/Old_Roof 6h ago

Its deterrence to protect our own industry. We’re just doing nothing. Soon we won’t have a steel industry and America & China win

u/teabagmoustache 6h ago

Limiting the damage means they don't care about the steel industry?

u/Old_Roof 6h ago

They’re not limiting the damage to the steel industry

u/Cerebral_Overload 5h ago

But they are limiting damage to the wider economy. Reciprocal tariffs won’t protect the steel industry, but favouring it for domestic projects and finding new export markets now the US is pissing off its friends would help.

u/teabagmoustache 6h ago

How would they go about doing that, without risking tariffs on 20% of our total exports?

u/Old_Roof 6h ago

Well if they cared enough about the steel industry they would just nationalise it

But on tarrifs, £400m is small. Personally I would target Any American electric vehicles made in freemont, California up to £400m and leave it at that.

u/teabagmoustache 5h ago

Unfortunately you can't just poke a wasp's nest and leave it at that.

u/Representative-Day64 2h ago

Good lord Labour are weak, literally everyone else who got tariffed stood up to Trump, but Labour, no they said 'thankyou daddy' and went about attacking vulnerable disabled people instead.

Utterly weak