A flood of cheap Chinese steel could be dumped on Britain if the Government accepts a recommendation to ditch trade protections, experts warned today.
The Trade Remedies Authority has advised axing measures aimed at limiting amounts of a product called HFP rebar - also known as reinforcing steel - being imported to the UK.
It says British firms which use the material will benefit from lower costs.
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But the position triggered outrage from trade body UK Steel, which claimed it would be “not only illogical but in fact a recommendation that actively acts against the UK steel industry”.
It said China “has the capacity to very quickly overwhelm and wipe out the UK industry”.
Scrapping the measures would “put “hundreds of jobs at risk in areas of the country the Government is supposed to be levelling-up” UK Steel added.
The organisation’s furious director-general Gareth Stace said: “The TRA’s message today is that we should open the floodgates for Chinese dumped steel and welcome it with open arms to threaten British jobs, British industry, and the British economy.
“Perhaps the current heatwave has affected the thinking of the TRA, as this advice to Government certainly beggars belief.
“It is astonishing that the body which is meant to be championing free and fair trade and preventing injury to UK industries has knowingly recommended a course of action that its own evidence clearly shows would damage UK industry and put many hundreds of jobs at risk.”
HFP rebar is used in the construction industry, which is enjoying a resurgence amid the economic bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.
Allowing more imports will cut prices for firms which use the steel in building projects.
The TRA said maintaining measures, which have been in place since 2016, “would not be in the economic interests of the UK as there is currently a high demand for affordable imported HFP rebar from the UK construction sector in particular”.
But it admitted that while “dumping of HFP rebar is likely to recur if the measures are revoked and that injury to the UK production would occur, it is not in the economic interests of the UK for the measures to be kept”.
Chief executive Oliver Griffiths said: “We have a duty to weigh up the impact of dumping on UK producers against the broader effects on the UK economy of imposing tariffs.
“In this case, our assessment is that high domestic demand and international supply shortages mean that retaining tariffs on HFP rebar from China would push up prices for key elements of the UK economy, such as construction.
“Our judgement is that the impact on the British economy of higher prices would significantly outweigh the impact on the sole UK producer of rebar of removing tariffs on Chinese imports."
Community steelworkers' union operations director Alasdair McDiarmid said: “This shocking recommendation from the TRA could have devastating consequences for steel jobs and communities.
“Chinese dumping of rebar threatened to wipe out British producers in 2015, and to open the floodgates now would be absolutely unforgivable.
“Community represents hundreds of steelworkers employed producing rebar, and their highly-skilled jobs cannot be sacrificed for the TRA’s misguided notion of the UK’s economic interest.
“Steelworkers are looking to the Secretary of State to deploy her powers to call in this crucial decision, so as to safeguard jobs and the future for British rebar production.”
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015 when the industry was hit with thousands of job losses and plant closures.
The sector directly employs 33,700 workers and supports another 42,000 posts in supply chains.
It is worth £2.1billion to the UK economy.
