Comment - Forget the flights of fancy and focus on steel

It isn’t just illegal lockdown parties, the government is having a nightmare over steel too - and South Yorkshire firms are suffering.
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The United States has said it won’t talk about dropping a Trump-era tariff on steel imports from the UK until ‘the time is right’.

It didn’t say when that would be.

It means EU firms have a 25 per cent price advantage and, once lost, business is hard to win back, bosses say.

UK officials are talking up the launch of negotiations over a trade deal with India that ‘could’ boost the economy by £28bn.UK officials are talking up the launch of negotiations over a trade deal with India that ‘could’ boost the economy by £28bn.
UK officials are talking up the launch of negotiations over a trade deal with India that ‘could’ boost the economy by £28bn.
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To add insult to injury, UK officials are talking up the launch of negotiations over a trade deal with India that ‘could’ boost the economy by £28bn.

Boris Johnson was even quoted in a press release saying a deal ‘offers huge benefits’.

Rarely can the start of talks for anything have had such fanfare.

But then it gets weird. 2022 is supposed to be a ‘five-star year of trade’ with ‘plans’ to launch negotiations with Canada, Mexico and the Gulf and ‘secure accession’ to the £8.4 trillion Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc.

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Never mind that deals can take years and some of these countries are literally on the other side of the planet - look at that enormous number!

To the despair of many business leaders here, our new ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’ shows the EU is well and truly out in the cold.

But why then is government so keen to spend so much money with European steelmakers supplying the £98bn HS2 rail project?

Ministers admit there is no target to use UK steel. And HS2 Ltd has sourced an array of products from Europe, including reinforcement bar from the French and giant tunnel boring machines from Germany.

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A veteran Sheffield manufacturer said 75 per cent of those machines could be made in the UK.

It’s quite sad given former Sheffield firm DavyMarkham’s role in building boring machines for the Channel tunnel.

But all HS2 tier one contractors are European and they give work to European suppliers or sub-contractors, he says.

It’s said the government had to be good at campaigning to win the election and secure a Brexit deal.

But a failure to get to grips with difficult - but vital - issues like tariffs and procurement are costing our businesses dear.