The statement made by Chris Bryant, the Minister for Trade, in the House of Commons on 25 June 2026.
The Government are today announcing the final details of the new steel trade measure coming into effect on 1 July 2026, a cornerstone policy of the UK’s steel strategy, and a further example of delivery on our modern industrial strategy, which charts a strategic course that allows business to make long-term decisions and focus on creating wealth and prosperity.
Steel overcapacity continues to distort markets, drive down prices and threaten the viability of our already fragile domestic steelmaking sector. UK steel production has more than halved in the last decade. Other countries are acting, including the US, Canada and the EU, with the EU’s measure also coming into force on 1 July 2026. This Government cannot, and will not, jeopardise domestic steelmaking given its importance to critical national infrastructure and defence. We must act now to secure its future.
Since our 19 March announcement, we have listened to stakeholders across the steel supply chain, including producers and downstream users, and have adjusted the steel trade measure’s product scope and quota volumes. We have also engaged closely with the EU and agreed an approach that reflects the UK and EU’s highly interconnected supply chains. This will provide stability for UK-EU steel trade from 1 July, while we continue to work together to strengthen UK-EU steel trade longer term.
We recognise that this will create changes to trade flows including with some of our closest trading partners. We want to reassure them that the UK remains committed to our international obligations and to constructive engagement on our steel measure. We recognise that this is a challenging time for steel industries globally, and that is why we will continue to prioritise working with partners to tackle overcapacity.
From 1 July 2026, we will now limit tariff-free steel imports and reduce overall quota volumes by 51% compared to the steel safeguard, protecting domestic producers while maintaining continuity of supply for downstream users, including the automotive, construction and defence sectors. The overall quota volume will be 3.2 metric tonnes, an increase of 21% compared to our previously published provisional volumes. We have also removed 11 product codes, where new information confirmed there was no UK production, and added two codes where there is evidence of production. Detailed information on quotas will be published on gov.uk.
Where quotas are filled, imports above these levels will face a 50% tariff. The measure will apply only to products that can be made in the UK. In a limited number of cases, technical constraints mean that product codes cannot be cleanly separated, with some codes covering both UK-produced and non-UK-produced grades and sizes of products. In these instances, quotas have been designed to allow sufficient imports, ensuring continued availability for UK users without imposing unnecessary additional costs.
We will continue to engage closely with industry across the supply chain. We will actively monitor implementation of the measure to ensure it operates as intended, and we will continue to engage with businesses. We will also review the measure after 12 months to ensure it remains effective and that the balance is right for industry. To ease potential short-term impacts, a transitional arrangement will apply whereby goods under contract before 14 March 2026 and imported between 1 July and 30 September 2026 will not face the 50% tariff or count towards quota volumes in the first quarter. We have provided technical guidance on these arrangements and on quota administration, including how unused quota volumes will “roll over” across quarters within the same quota year.
Specific arrangements will be in place to ensure that steel can flow to Northern Ireland. The Government will continue to provide guidance and support traders moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland through the trader support service and work closely with the EU to ensure these arrangements operate effectively in practice.
In parallel, the UK has launched an article XXVIII process at the World Trade Organisation to permanently raise the maximum most favoured nation steel tariffs that we can apply to steel imports. We will shortly confirm members’ rights and expect to begin negotiations in the autumn. This process is separate to the new steel trade measure and will create the necessary policy space to ensure the sector has sufficient tariff protection in the long term.
This Government are acting now to secure the future of the UK steel industry. We are determined that steel will remain at the heart of Britain’s future.