Despite strains in the trans-Atlantic relationship between London and Washington, the two leaders found themselves simultaneously battening down the hatches to protect their respective steel industries.
Despite Tokyo’s alliance with Washington, his effort to block the sale is aligned with his planned revitalisation of manufacturing industries in the American heartland.
Trump’s determination to make China the major target of his international trade war suggests that Washington may look kindly on Downing Street’s efforts to end Beijing’s dominance in the UK steel industry.
The diplomatic row with Beijing comes as Starmer’s Government eyes China as a key part of its economic growth plans (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
That claim alone will have garnered Washington’s attention, and Trump will certainly not object to the Chinese parent company being given a black eye as a result of Starmer’s process.
During the Biden era, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak agreed to address national security risks associated with bilateral trade flows between the UK and China.
In 2020, after coming under American pressure, Britain banned Chinese tech giant Huawei from any involvement in the UK’s development of 5G infrastructure.
In 2023, accountancy firm Grant Thornton estimated that 970 companies in the UK are effectively Chinese-owned, creating more than 59,000 jobs and revenues of more than £116bn.
Even after Chinese management of British Steel is sidelined, it remains unclear whether Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds can win fresh exemptions for UK steel exports to America as part of ongoing negotiations aimed at securing a new economic co-operation pact with Trump’s government.
The thorny issue of Chinese involvement in the industry required the government in London to allow an independent, third-party audit of British Steel to attest to “no evidence of market-distorting practices” as a result of any kind of Chinese influence over the company.
The White House may welcome Number 10’s rebuke of British Steel’s Chinese owner, but seek moves to limit Beijing’s involvement in other critical areas of the economy.
And the president’s aversion to all steel imports – even those from Canada and Mexico – may still keep American barriers in place, stopping the product that emerges from Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces from ever being exported to the USA.
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