UK ministers working to secure carve-out from 50% rate for Indian-owned Port Talbot works
Ministers are reportedly working to stop the UK’s biggest steelmaker, Tata Steel, from being left out of tariff-free access to the US under Keir Starmer’s trade deal with Donald Trump.
The prime minister said on Wednesday that he hoped his deal with the US – which has been agreed but not signed – would come into effect “in just a couple of weeks”, after the US president decided to pause 50% tariffs on British steel and aluminium products for five weeks.
However, the deal could end up excluding Indian-owned Tata Steel, which runs the vast Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales, because of the origin of some of its products, its bosses fear. The company exports more than $100m worth of goods into the US market every year.
Tata Steel shut down its blast furnace at Port Talbot last year owing to its transition to a greener electric arc furnace. As part of that change, the company has imported steel from its sister companies in India and Europe to ship on to customers.
