The Prime Minister of Britain, Keir Starmer, has outlined that a retaliatory response is possible following President Donald Trump’s administration’s decision to impose tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports.

During his weekly questioning in the House of Commons, Starmer, the leader of the center-left Labour Party, said his government was taking a “pragmatic approach” but “we will keep all options on the table”.

He also reported that negotiations with the Trump administration over a bilateral trade deal were ongoing. The UK should be taking a “more robust” approach with the US president “like the Europeans and like the Canadians”, he said while responding to a question from the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey.

Starmer has worked to build strong ties with Trump to avoid the tariffs levied on many other US trading partners. Additionally, following a meeting on February 27 at the White House, Trump and Starmer said their governments would work on sealing a long-elusive US-UK trade deal.

However, the tariffs are a new blow for Britain’s once-mighty steel industry, which has dwindled dramatically from its 1970s peak and now accounts for 0.1 per cent of the economy.

Thousands of jobs are due to be lost at the country’s biggest steelworks, at Port Talbot in Wales, as owner Tata Steel tries to make the unprofitable plant leaner and greener.

Trade body UK Steel said that in 2024, Britain exported 180,000 metric tons (198,000 US tons) of steel to the United States, about seven per cent of the UK’s total steel exports by volume and nine per cent by value. The aluminum industry says the US market accounts for 10 per cent of UK exports.