division_name: Protecting Britain&#8217;s Steel Industry
motion: <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House believes the British steel industry, and the livelihoods and communities it supports, should not be undermined by unfair competition from overseas; regrets that the Trade Remedies Authority has not accounted for the interconnectedness of the British steel industry, nor the impact of safeguard tariffs being maintained in the US and EU, when recommending the abolition of nine of the 19 existing safeguards on steel products; accordingly requires the Government to take urgent action by legislating to allow Ministers to reject the Trade Remedies Authority&#8217;s recommendation and temporarily extend the current safeguards; and orders that, at the sitting on Monday <phrase class="date" code="2021-06-28">28 June</phrase>, <phrase class="standing-order" code="14(1)">Standing Order No. 14(1)</phrase> shall not apply, and that precedence at that sitting shall be given instead to any Business of the House motion in the name of the Leader of the Opposition which may be moved at the commencement of public business that day to make provision for urgent legislative action to protect the vital interests of the British steel industry.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a vital body with a vital task&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;there are such concerns and suspicions that the Government&#8217;s true agenda for the TRA is not to defend Britain against underpriced imports, but somehow to balance the damage they do to domestic producers against the perceived benefits for domestic consumers.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/13" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;That is not the job of the trade remedies authority.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-05-20">20 May</phrase> 2020; Vol. 676, c. 616.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/15" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;which impose swingeing tariffs to protect particular industries.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d667.1/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;suited to a buccaneering global Britain&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d669.4/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It&#8217;s unsustainable for the government to prop up a steel industry which is no longer competitive internationally.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d669.4/13" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;throwing&#8230;cash into a burning furnace&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d675.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the public interest...being used as a mechanism to widen the powers of the Secretary of State.&#8221;&#8211;&#8211;[Official Report, Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Public Bill Committee, <phrase class="date" code="2021-01-25">25 January</phrase> 2018; c. 103.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d676.5/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;protectionist tariffs that the rest of the world believes are illegal under WTO rules.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-06-04">4 June</phrase> 2018; Vol. 642, c. 39.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d677.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Our new report plainly demonstrates UK steelmakers face systemic disadvantages in higher electricity prices than our competitors&#8230; Electricity is one of the biggest costs for the steel industry, it undermines our competitiveness and it damages our ability to invest&#8230; And the issue is becoming even more urgent with the growing need to rapidly decarbonise&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d677.3/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The UK will become a magnet for huge volumes of steel imports, it is beyond worrying to consider the damage this could do to the UK steel sector and its long-term viability&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d677.3/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is the first test of the government&#8217;s commitment to our steel industry post-Brexit and they&#8217;re failing it&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d677.3/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;viability of an entire industry, not individual production lines&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d688.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The rules of the TRA were set in legislation in 2018, and I think we are in very different times now. We have had a global pandemic. We are much clearer about the issues of supply chains. I have briefed the Committee&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d688.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;on&#8230;the way we are analysing critical goods.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d688.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;system works&#8230;It is already delivering in a number of sectors, including steel&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d688.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;urgent legislative action to protect the vital interests of the British steel industry.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d691.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We know that trade is essential to a functioning global economy. It is clear, however, that the past promises made to workers on trade were not met&#8230;The consequences for families  when factories closed and jobs were sent overseas were real&#8230;It is the result of a long pursuit of tax, trade, labour and other policies that encouraged a race to the bottom.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d691.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;As we emerge from this pandemic that has exacerbated inequity and put an even greater strain on workers&#8217; families, we have to prove that democracy can deliver. We do that by empowering workers, raising wages, standing up for union rights and holding bad actors accountable when they subject their citizens to forced labour and child labour.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d695.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I think British steel is a very important national asset. I think the fact that we make steel in this country is of strategic long-term importance&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d696.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a hammer blow to the UK steel sector&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d699.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;there is a real danger that a combination of ideology and the wrong political choices will open the gates to cheap imports, which will costs thousands of skilled jobs and devastate local communities.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d701.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a hammer blow to the UK steel sector&#8230;utter madness&#8230;the UK&#8217;s new system has failed our domestic steel sector.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d701.1/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;something like 2 billion tonnes are produced every year, and there is a global glut. Lots of steel is being produced, and the real danger is that, somehow, we are exposed to dumping and to people overproducing and, essentially, undercutting our own producers.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d701.1/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This is a problem that is faced by all steel producers. The US has Section 232 tariffs. The EU, of which we were a member&#8230;had its own safeguards and tariff protections&#8230;We have to try to work out how we navigate this global glut of steel.&#8221;</p>