Latest / Best of Business / Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK being temporarily spared from Trump's 50 percent steel tariffs

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Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK being temporarily spared from Trump's 50 percent steel tariffs · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Devin Gray, UK correspondents with US Now Hey Kevin, Hi
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Heather. How have you guys managed to end up
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: with only a twenty five percent tariff?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? That's an interesting one, isn't it so Donald Trump
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  Speaker 2: announcing overnight our time, the last few hours really that
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the UK will not have to pay the doubling of
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the steel and aluminium tariff from twenty five to fifty percent.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Good question as to why we've been singled out. I
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  Speaker 2: think it's all really part of this ongoing semi trade
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  Speaker 2: deal which was announced of course last month. But many
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  Speaker 2: are saying, well, let you know, we really need to
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  Speaker 2: crack on and do more, because that was just a
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  Speaker 2: skeleton of a sort of massive trade deal. But America
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  Speaker 2: is the destination for about seven percent of steal exports
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: from the UK, so those tariffs would have had a
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  Speaker 2: big impact on what is a very very fragile industry
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  Speaker 2: here in the UK. Just earlier this year, the governments
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  Speaker 2: had to step in to rescue UK steel, take it
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  Speaker 2: over from a Chinese giant because they feared it was
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  Speaker 2: being run into the ground in that no more raw
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  Speaker 2: materials were being ordered and they were simply going to
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  Speaker 2: let the blast furnaces go out and they're extremely difficult
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  Speaker 2: to restart. So this is good news for that, I suppose.
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  Speaker 2: But the levee still remains at twenty five percent for
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  Speaker 2: UK steel and some will think, well, that's great, Donald
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  Speaker 2: Trump done us a bit of a favor. Others will think, well,
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  Speaker 2: hang on a minute, because we've still got this twenty
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  Speaker 2: five percent tariff. So although the US is the biggest
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  Speaker 2: import of steel in the world after the European Union,
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  Speaker 2: it certainly is trying to get that steel industry back
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  Speaker 2: in its own country into a firmer hold totally.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, listen, run me through what is going on here
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  Speaker 1: with the former Chelsea Football Club owner.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so Roman and Bramo Bitch was subject to sanctions
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  Speaker 2: here in the UK following Russian invasion of Ukraine back
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, so it was agreed that when
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to sell Chelsea Football Club he would not
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  Speaker 2: personally benefit from the fee. Now the fee is roughly
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  Speaker 2: five and a half billion New Zealand dollars, so it's
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  Speaker 2: a big amount of money, but since the sale it
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  Speaker 2: has sat frozen in a bank account. And that is
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  Speaker 2: because at the time of the sale it was agreed
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  Speaker 2: by the British government that the money would go to
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  Speaker 2: humanitarian aid, and what the British government was assuming was
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  Speaker 2: that that would go to those in Ukraine. What the
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  Speaker 2: oligarch and billionaire Roman Abramovich is saying is I think
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  Speaker 2: it should go actually to all of the victims of
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  Speaker 2: the war in Ukraine, in other words Russian as well,
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  Speaker 2: and that has led to this massive impasse and standoff
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  Speaker 2: between the two sides. Some are saying of our British government,
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  Speaker 2: where you were in charge of the sanctions, you were
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  Speaker 2: in charge of this agreement. How come it wasn't absolutely
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  Speaker 2: name on that it had to go to people in Ukraine,
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  Speaker 2: rather than now the oligarch being able to turn around
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  Speaker 2: and say, well, and I always say it all along,
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  Speaker 2: it was to go to all victims of the war
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  Speaker 2: in Ukraine. And it's all a bit of a mess.
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  Speaker 2: And indeed the House of Lords committee described it as
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  Speaker 2: incomprehensible that this promise to use funds to support Ukraine
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  Speaker 2: remain unfulfilled and the assets remain frozen to this day.
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  Speaker 1: Keevin, this amount of money that you people need to
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  Speaker 1: retire comfortably seems to me extraordinary. It's like sixty pounds,
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  Speaker 1: which is about one hundred and forty thousand New Zealand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: They's huge, isn't it annually?
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  Speaker 2: Yes? It is. Yes. This is a look at what
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  Speaker 2: a couple might need for retirement. It says there should
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: be a minimum of roughly fifty thousand New Zealand dollars
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  Speaker 2: a year. But for comfortable retirement, yeah, they're saying that's
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  Speaker 2: sort of one hundred and thirty thousand New Zealand dollars
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  Speaker 2: a year. Looking at the figures to break down, they're
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  Speaker 2: saying money to maintain a property, a fleet one two
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  Speaker 2: hundred New Zealand dollars a year. They're saying groceries just
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  Speaker 2: under the three hundred dollars a week mark, running a
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  Speaker 2: three year old small car, replacing it every five years,
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  Speaker 2: and some money to spend on taxis and railfares. They're
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  Speaker 2: also saying one holiday abroad and long weekends in the
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  Speaker 2: UK adds up, and they're saying roughly three and three thousand,
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  Speaker 2: two hundred dollars on clothing and shoes. That's for a couple.
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  Speaker 2: Now it gets slightly easier if you're a single person,
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  Speaker 2: but of course you've only got one pension. Part in
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  Speaker 2: theory with the about what we have about ninety thousand
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand dollars a year to be comfortable and a
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  Speaker 2: minimum of some twenty eight thousand New Zealand dollars a year,
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  Speaker 2: I have to say that this idea of only spending,
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  Speaker 2: you know, a bit on groceries and a bit here
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  Speaker 2: and a bit there. I went shopping yesterday and I
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  Speaker 2: pretty much spent that whole week's allowance and more in
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  Speaker 2: one go. Food shopping has become very very expensive here,
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  Speaker 2: So I'm worried about these figures.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus even more than that, Gvin, thanks very much.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciated for more from News Talks B Listen live on
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