‘Brexit’ no silver bullet warns UK Steel
16 Jun 2016
The director of UK Steel, Gareth Stace, said this week that Britain would be better able to prevent cheap Chinese steel imports by remaining part of the EU.
“As a huge trading block, the EU has significantly more clout in discussions with China regarding the need to curb over-production and subsidised exports that are proving so damaging to our sector,” said Stace.
“Further to this, while it has been suggested that a UK free of the shackles of Brussels would be free to implement significant trade tariffs to guard against future dumping of Chinese steel, there is scant evidence that the Government would actually do this."
It is highly concerning to hear the myths being peddled by those who wish to leave the EU, opportunistically seizing on the crisis facing our sector
UK Steel director, Gareth Stace
Stace said the European Commission had been keen to introduce more rigorous measures in this area, but had "been prevented from doing so by UK interventions".
He added that the high cost of energy was a “home grown” problem.
“There are many reasons for the UK’s uncompetitive electricity prices and nearly all of them are home grown and can be rectified by the UK government,” he said.
“Indeed, we estimate that less than 10 per cent of the policy costs added to electricity prices may be linked to EU energy policy.”
He said the future health and competitiveness of the British steel sector relied heavily on remaining within the European Union.
“It is highly concerning to hear the myths being peddled by those who wish to leave the EU, opportunistically seizing on the crisis facing our sector,” said Stace.
“The EU is by far the largest market for steel outside of the UK and common sense dictates that it would be folly to break that link while the sector is battling for survival.”
