Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Northern Ireland protocol, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK steel companies can export into the EU without facing EU Safeguard Tariffs.

The Government has worked successfully with the European Commission to secure country-specific allocations for various steel products within the Tariff Rate Quotas (by which the EU imposes its steel safeguard measures) to enable UK companies to trade tariff-free into the EU. These tariff-free allocations came into operation on 1 January 2021. Officials in the Department for International Trade continue to discuss the size and applicability of these quotas with the European Commission.

For steel traded into Northern Ireland, there is an interim solution already in place for steel from Britain and the EU to ensure it enters tariff free.