Brexit: UK steel industry exports won’t need 25% tariff, EU Commission says

UK manufacturing firms exporting steel to the EU will not be automatically subject to a huge 25% tariff, it has been announced.

The European Commission has published proposed Tariff Rate Quota allocations for the UK steel exports into the EU from 1^st January 2021.

Without this UK specific allocation of steel export tariff-free quota, the UK sector could have faced an £80 million bill from EU Steel Safeguard tariffs in the first half of next year.

Whilst the sector now carefully considers the detail of the UK allocation proposals, it is clear that from today, the UK steel companies can give full reassurance to European customers that steel delivered to them from next year will not automatically be subject to the tariff.

Customer reassurance and certainty in these uncertain times is more important than ever, trade body Steel UK says, so this announcement today is extremely welcome.

British steel industry in numbers

• Produces 7.3 million tonnes of steel a year, around 65% of the UK’s annual requirement


• Employs 32,600 people directly in the UK and supports a further 41,100 in supplies chains


• Average steel sector salary is £36,238, 18% higher than the UK national average and 36% higher than the regional average in Wales, and Yorkshire & Humberside where steel sector jobs are concentrated


• Makes a £2.8 billion direct contribution to UK GDP and supports a further £3.6 billion


• Makes a £2.5 billion direct contribution to the UK’s balance of trade

UK Steel director general, Gareth Stace, commented: “At last we have good news for the UK steel sector. Receiving the formal notice from the European Commission of Tariff Rate Quotas helps all steel companies in the UK to give their European customers a greater level of certainty that deals done today, for delivery in 2021, will not automatically be subjected to a crippling 25% tariff, resulting out of the EU Steel Safeguards, which will remain in place until July 2021.

“The UK sector has worked closely with the Government on getting this result over the line, and I want to thank both ministers and civil servants in both the Department for International Trade and the Business Department for their support. Their help and our work has resulted in delivery of this crucial proposal from the European Commission, meaning steel companies can provide the assure their customers have asked for and therefore continue to deliver UK produced steel across the channel, our biggest export market, after 1 January 2021.”

UK Steel, a division of Make UK, is the trade association for the UK steel industry. It represents all the country’s steelmakers and a large number of downstream steel processors.

UK Steel www.makeuk.org/uksteel