May 1, 2018

Britain’s trade minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday he was delighted that United States President Donald Trump had decided to extend a temporary exemption on steel and aluminum tariffs.

He was quoted as saying hitting British imports made no sense.

The White House announced it was postponing tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico shortly before temporary extensions were due to expire at 12:01 a.m. (0401 GMT) on Tuesday.

“We’ve been very clear that we think that the mechanism that dealing with Chinese steel overproduction in this case is the wrong one, we would rather see it dealt with on a multilateral basis,” Fox told the Media.

“I’m delighted that there’s a 30 day extension now for us to try to get a longer term deal with the U.S.

“I think the idea of penalising Britain when the small amount of steel that Britain sends to the United States is incorporated into its military programme, to penalise us on grounds of national security would not make any sense.

”I’m glad we’ve got a breathing space on that.”