The Mirror reported that British Government is poised to slap sweeping new steel tariffs on a host of nations in an attempt to woo Red Wall voters, but critics say it breaks World Trade Organization rules. Speaking at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, Mr Boris Johnson said “British steel firms should benefit from the same protections as European rivals. I think it's very important people understand the context of this, and that is that the UK steel industry has been going through a difficult time, partly because of the energy prices that I have been talking about.” He said “We have a system in the UK where we don't privilege our industry in the way that some other countries do. They pay a very high price for energy; we need to fix that. We need British steel to be provided with much cheaper energy and cheap electricity for its blast furnaces but until we can fix that, I think it is reasonable for UK steel to have the same protections that other European, absolutely every other European steel economy does.” Mr Johnson said there would be tough choices over what action to take. He said “The difficulty is that helping the industry possible to do while staying within our World Trade Organization obligations? That’s the problem.”
The Mirror reported that British Government is poised to slap sweeping new steel tariffs on a host of nations in an attempt to woo Red Wall voters, but critics say it breaks World Trade Organization rules. Speaking at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, Mr Boris Johnson said “British steel firms should benefit from the same protections as European rivals. I think it's very important people understand the context of this, and that is that the UK steel industry has been going through a difficult time, partly because of the energy prices that I have been talking about.” He said “We have a system in the UK where we don't privilege our industry in the way that some other countries do. They pay a very high price for energy; we need to fix that. We need British steel to be provided with much cheaper energy and cheap electricity for its blast furnaces but until we can fix that, I think it is reasonable for UK steel to have the same protections that other European, absolutely every other European steel economy does.” Mr Johnson said there would be tough choices over what action to take. He said “The difficulty is that helping the industry possible to do while staying within our World Trade Organization obligations? That’s the problem.”
