Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 3 July 2018.
I think we have to be careful here, because the steel industry, like other industries, does depend on an export market. If we actually say to other countries, 'Only steel from Britain is allowed to be used in Britain', they'll say, 'Tough—you're not entering our markets either.' So, we have to be very careful about what we do.
What we do need to do, of course, is to make sure that our procurement policy is as strong as it can be, as far as using Welsh steel is concerned. We also need to make sure, of course, that we support the industry to become stronger in terms of exporting. Certainly, a small but significant amount of steel is exported to the US, where the tariffs now have made it not so much difficult for Welsh steel, but more expensive for their buyers in the US. So, we've just got to be very careful here in saying that it's only steel from Britain used in British projects, as other countries will then take the same attitude, and we must be careful not to cut ourselves off from the export market.