Sheffield MP warns of steel jobs threat over Donald Trump's import tariff plan

MP Angela Smith, whose Penistone & Stocksbridge constituency includes hundreds of steel workers, has joined the Community Union to denounce the planned tariffs.

She said the threat to jobs is 'particularly concerning' for South Yorkshire because of the high end steel produced for the aerospace and automotive industries in the area, much of it ending up in the USA.

The Sheffield MP said Mr Trump will put jobs at risk on 'both sides of Atlantic'.

She has joined with Community Union in calls for International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox to use 'all leverage necessary' to ensure the UK is exempt from any such tariffs.

Ms Smith said: "The threat to impose tariffs of this level on steel is deeply worrying for the UK steel industry.

"Donald Trump is putting jobs at risk on both sides of the Atlantic. I am pleased that Roy Rickhuss has written to Liam Fox to demand that he use our ‘special relationship’ with the USA to avoid UK exporters being hit by huge tariffs.

“We also need the Government to work in partnership with other EU nations to ensure steel is not dumped into our markets. Strong trade defences are crucial to ensuring there is a future for our industry, and post-Brexit Britain cannot be allowed to become a dumping ground for cheap foreign imports."

Recently the ‘All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel’ met to discuss the issue with representatives of Community Union.

It was agreed they 'would do all they can' to make sure the steel industry is protected from the dangerous imposition of blanket tariffs by the US and the threat of the dumping of low grade Chinese steel on the European market.

UK steel exports to the US amount to some £360m per annum or 250,000 tons and account for some 15 per cent of all the country’s exports to the USA.