Orb Steelworks in Newport

Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:23 pm on 18 September 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 3:23, 18 September 2019

Thank you. I can confirm that Tata have not asked for any assistance from the Welsh Government, though we are working closely with them to make sure that any assistance the workforce needs is provided.

It is worth pointing out that the uncertainty of the market that Tata's operating within has been a contributing factor for their decision to close the plant. If we are to leave the European Union without a deal, then steel imports into the EU face a quota of 25 per cent—that's a quarter increase on price of steel being exported into Europe. And similarly, if a World Trade Organization situation was to come about, as we frequently hear from Mark Reckless and others, as providing some kind of bucolic free trade solution to the future of the UK economy, that could mean that Chinese imports flood the UK market as tariffs are lowered on them. So, the two scenarios of Brexit—of tariffs going into the EU or tariffs coming off Chinese steel coming in—are very real factors in the decisions these global trading companies are making about the future of the steel industry. We're talking here in very broad, ideological terms about Brexit, but here are the hard, practical realities of the impact of British industry from these debates that we are having. These are not casualty-free discussions, and the UK steel industry is already suffering from the laissez-faire attitude of the UK Government refusing to intervene to help it with research and development, refusing to intervene to help it with energy costs, refusing to give it a viable future, signing up to the procurement requirements that have been called for by both UK Steel and by the trade unions. And now, on top that lack of help for them, they're introducing an uncertainty in trading conditions that is the straw that has broken the camel's back in this case.