United Kingdom

The following communication, dated and received on 28 May 2025, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of the United Kingdom.

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Pursuant to Article 12.5 of the Agreement on Safeguards, and in accordance with the agreed format for notifications,[1] the United Kingdom provides immediate notification to the Council for Trade in Goods of the proposed suspension of concessions or other obligations referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 8 of the Agreement on Safeguards.

Notwithstanding the reservation of rights in this notification, the United Kingdom remains committed to reaching a positive outcome through an ongoing dialogue with the United States.

1. Which Member is proposing suspension of concessions and other obligations referred to in Article 8.2.

The United Kingdom.

2. Specify the measure, the product subject to the measure, the WTO document that notified the safeguard measure, and the Member imposing the measure in relation to which the Member is proposing suspension of concessions and other obligations referred to in Article 8.2.

The United Kingdom has established rights to suspend concessions or other obligations in relation to existing safeguard measures applied in 2018 and 2020 by the United States on certain steel and aluminium products and steel and aluminium derivative products,[2] and on 8 May 2025 the United Kingdom provided a further notification under Article 12.5 of the Agreement on Safeguards proposing to suspend concessions or other obligations in relation to additional safeguard measures applied on 12 March 2025 by the United States on other steel and aluminium products and steel and aluminium derivative products.[3]

On 4 April 2025, the United States introduced additional customs duties, at a rate of 25% ad valorem, on imports of additional aluminium derivative products, namely beer and empty aluminium cans.[4] These new safeguard measures apply with respect to the United Kingdom from 4 April 2025 for an unlimited period.

Although the United States did not notify the measures to the Committee on Safeguards under Article 12.1(c) of the Agreement on Safeguards, the United Kingdom considers that the measures are safeguard measures to which Article XIX of GATT 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards are applicable.

3. Describe the proposed suspension of concessions and other obligations referred to in Article 8.2 of the Agreement on Safeguards, and the proposed date from which it will come into effect.

The United Kingdom hereby reserves the right to suspend the application of substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations pursuant to Article 8 of the Agreement on Safeguards.

Without prejudice to the effective exercise of its right to suspend substantially equivalent obligations referred to in Article 8.2 of the Agreement on Safeguards, the United Kingdom hereby reserves the right to apply the proposed suspension: (i) in relation to those measures that have not been taken as a result of an absolute increase in imports, from 28 June 2025, accounting for the expiration of 30 days after this notification is received by the Council for Trade in Goods, and (ii) in relation to those measures that have been taken as a result of an absolute increase in imports, from 4 April 2028, or from the fifth day following the date of the adoption by, or notification to, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body of a ruling that the United States' safeguard measures are inconsistent with the relevant provisions of the WTO Agreement, if that is earlier.

The United Kingdom considers that the new safeguard measures would result in up to around GBP 3.6 million in theoretical additional duties collected on United States imports of relevant affected products from the United Kingdom, based on the import values in 2024, of which up to around GBP 2.2 million is with regard to products the import of which into the United States from the world have not increased in absolute terms.

The proposed suspension of substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations would take the form of an increase in customs duty on selected products originating in the United States. The details of the suspension of concessions or other obligations will be provided to the Council for Trade in Goods before any application of future measures.

The United Kingdom reserves the right to withdraw, modify, supplement or replace this notification and/or make a further notification or notifications, should it deem that appropriate, including in light of any subsequent developments.

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