UK Pushes US to Drop Key Sticking Point to Steel Trade Deal

UK officials are optimistic that the Trump administration will soon agree to modify the domestic-production requirements that are holding up a trade agreement to lower US tariffs on British steel.

The UK has asked that steel imported from European countries such as the Netherlands — and then manufactured into products in the UK — qualify as British for the purposes of US tariffs, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. That would mean products made by Tata Steel UK, which no longer has its own furnace and must rely on raw steel from elsewhere, could be exported to the US tariff-free.