{"id":15315,"date":"2018-06-01T13:37:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T12:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15315"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:43","slug":"unite-trump-tariffs-steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15315","title":{"rendered":"‘In no one’s interest’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The prospect of a potential global trade war came to the fore this week when US president Donald Trump confirmed the US would impose substantial steel and aluminium tariffs on EU imports.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tariffs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u00a025 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium — were levied on the EU, Mexico, and Canada from today (May 31) despite the US allies hoping to receive permanent exemptions after securing a temporary exemption in March.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called the move by the Trump administration \u00e2\u20ac\u015bprotectionism pure and simple\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, while the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the decision would “damage prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The EU has now triggered a dispute case settlement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and will also impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods of its own, such as on orange juice, peanut butter, Harley Davidson motor bikes and jeans, among other products.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frustration<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite rep and Port Talbot steelworker Mark \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Pasty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Turner told ITV<\/a> that he and his colleagues feel deep frustration over the latest news \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially in light of the concerted, and largely successful, Save Our Steel campaign in 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEverybody just feels everything is against us,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Brexit and nobody knows what that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to do. Now with the tariffs being on us, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not 100% certain what that does mean for us.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur biggest concern is dumping,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe American markets are going to be closed to everybody, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be steel that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be floating around and our markets in the UK are going to be at the heart of that dumping.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Short-sighted<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite national officer for steel Tony Brady branded the US steel tariffs as \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba blunt short sighted instrument that will do nothing to address the underlying problem of global over capacity and the secondary dumping of steel from countries, such as China and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThose countries that have been dumping steel and aluminium are the villains, not countries, such as the UK or Canada which play by the rules,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact the UK government has failed to secure any prospect of an exemption for UK steel from the US administration should be an eye opener for those who pin their hopes on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098special relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 delivering a boost for British industry in a post-Brexit world.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis abject failure shows why we need to remain in a customs union,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Brady added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe European Union remains the only trading bloc with the power to secure a negotiated full and ongoing exemption and is the only one not to have capitulated to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He criticised the coming \u00e2\u20ac\u0098tit for tat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 trade war as being \u00e2\u20ac\u015bin no one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interest.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSteel tariffs will only serve to harm manufacturing and steel making communities either side of the Atlantic and could escalate into other sectors such as automotive where the Trump administration has launched an investigation into car, truck and component imports.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile politically motivated, a US-inspired tariff war in the automotive sector would disrupt the US-UK trading relationship and jeopardise decent well paid manufacturing jobs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK government cannot continue to be bystander as the threat of a job destroying trade war increases. Unite is in regular dialogue with our sister union United Steelworkers in the US and Canada through Workers Uniting and steel unions in Europe via industriALL.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe recognise that the global problem needs a global solution,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Brady went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUK ministers must engage fully with the European Union and play a leading role in securing a negotiated solution to the global overcapacity of steel before it escalates into a wider trade war.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prospect of a potential global trade war came to the fore this week when US president Donald Trump confirmed the US would impose substantial steel and aluminium tariffs on EU imports.   The tariffs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u00a025 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium — were levied on the EU, Mexico, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams Trump administration tariffs on steel","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26160,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315\/revisions\/26160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}