On Thursday, May 8, the United States and the United Kingdom reached an agreement on tariffs on automobiles, steel and aluminum. It includes reducing tariffs on the United Kingdom´s steel products when it enters the United States.

But this tariff reduction will only take effect once the United Kingdom has met requirements related to the ownership of certain plants, a condition that raises further questions about the ownership of British Steel, the last remaining blast furnaces mill in the UK, by the Chinese firm Jingye Group.

The United Kingdom exports approximately 200,000 tons of steel annually to the United States, valued at more than US$532 million, so the United Kingdom strongly wanted the United States to eliminate the 25% tariff. The United Kingdom should seek a prompt resolution for British Steel, which is suffering significant losses daily; nationalization remains the most likely outcome in the short term.