§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 25 July (WA 114), what products were excluded from United States' restrictions on the importation of steel before the extended deadline of 31 August 2002.[HL5928]
§ The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean):The Government actively supported all UK company requests for exclusion of products covered by the United States steel safeguard. The United States Trade Representative completed its examination of requests on 22 August. In total, 727 were approved, of which 67 or 9 per cent, were requests from UK companies. Around 70 per cent of UK steel trade is now unaffected by the US action.
Taking the broad product definitions published by the United States Trade Representative, the following numbers of UK products were excluded from the US measures:
34WA
- Hot rolled bar: 38
- Cold finished bar: 15
- Cold rolled, flat rolled: 6
- Stainless steel bar: 3
- Welded pipe and tube: 3
- Plate: 1
- Stainless steel wire rod: 1
- Total: 67
The second round of the process will start next month for exclusions which will apply from March 2003. The Government will continue to offer their full support for all UK company requests.