"Batting for Britain? The Tory Government is Batting for China!", Claims Lib Dem Councillor Nick Hollinghurst

"David Cameron, George Osborne and Sajid Javid are free-market extremists," says Liberal Democrat County Councillor, Nick Hollinghurst.

The steel dumping crisis has been building up for several years as the Chinese economy weakened and domestic steel demand fell, leaving them producing more than they needed. Their response was to sell on the export maket well below production costs (called "dumping"). And Russia and Belarus are at it as well.

There are however World Trade Association (WTA) rules in place to allow countries to deter dumping by imposing tariffs. Countries who are free trade goody-goodies - like the EU as a group and the UK as an individual state - can opt to apply the "lesser duty rule" which means at the moment tariffs of 9%, 16% on different types of imported steel and 24% on wire rod.

But applying the WTA "lesser duty rule" is only optional. The USA didn't hesitate - it went straight to a 266% (not a typo, 266%) punitive tariff. Nobody messes with Pittsburgh!

France, Italy and Germany want increase the tariffs to punitive levels too. So what's stopping this happening? Well, some EU countries don't want steel prices to rise too much and are objecting. However, the loudest and strongest of these countries and the leader of this group of wreckers is... Tory-controlled UK. In fact the EU wants seriously higher tariffs on other dumped goods too and had introduced 37 by mid-March, despite British opposition.

The Conservatives' policy record on China - dubbed by some in Whtehall as the "Osborne Doctrine" - is seriously questionable. So far the Conservatives have:

• 2014. Signed a deal with China which involves giving access to UK markets for:
  financial services, commodity and securities trading (China Merchant Securities);
  investment in, and the management of, new technology and engineering (Minsheng Investment);
  solar enegy (ZN Shine Solar).
  Chinese companies will also have opportunities to:
  promote the RMB (the Chinese currency) on world markets through London;
  invest in our nuclear energy programme (30% stake in Hinckley Point) with UK buying back electricity for 30 years at a guaranteed high price; invest in banking (Barclays) and establish businesses in engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance as well as in pharmaceuticals and life sciences (Dynasty Biotechnology).
  But its not all big business - a financial group (Nord Engine) is being established to invest in and acquire small and medium sized high tech business with strong R&D capability.
  In the other direction the UK has guaranteed to supply China with 1.5 million tonnes of liquified natural gas from 2019 and for 20 years.
  
  
• Cameron and Osborne pledge in 2015 to "make China the UK's second largest trading partner"
  
• 17th November, 2015. SSI close the Redcar steel works after losing £530 million pounds and having received no meaningful assistance from the Conservative government loss of 220 jobs.
  
  
• January 2016. Tata announce first job losses including 750 at Port Talbot. No response from Conservative government.
  
• 3rd February 2016. Conservative Sajid Javid signs a joint letter with other EU ministers urging the EU "to use every means available to take strong action against China and Russia" to prevent them dumping cheap steel in the EU.
  
• 10th February 2016. A sudden U-turn by Javid who now says "it would not be right" to remove the "lesser duty rule" and expressed concern that higher duties would raise steel prices to companies who used it. Javid opposed the proposals to increase the tariffs to an effective level. Gareth Stace, director of the industry's trade association, UK Steel, said the government's stance risked killing off British steelmaking altogether. He accused Javid of "leaving the steel industry on its knees", adding that, "Anti-dumping measures in the EU do not currently have the teeth to halt this tsunami of dumped steel."
  
• 31st March 2016. China defiantly imposes its own higher duty tariff of 46% on several types of speciality steel from the EU, Korea and Japan. The Conservative government's feeble response to this amazing chutzpah was that it wouldn't affect the UK significantly since we export "very little" of those types of steel.

In short the Conservatives appear to be putting free market dogma before saving jobs and are wilfully allowing a key strategic industry to be closed down. But in fact their craven posture before Communist China is not even consistent with their own economic philosophy.

They will not lift a finger to prevent subsidised state-controlled Chinese companies from abusing their market dominance - that's not a "free" market, is it? Now, with the Chinese imposing a 46% tariff to keep European products out of China, they are meekly accepting their humiliation and their weakness. "The Conservative government has ended up batting for China, when they should be batting for Britain!" said Cllr Hollinghurst.

"They just haven't got the bottle to be effective negotiators - and now the whole world realises it. God help us if we leave the EU and try to stand up for ourselves against giants like India and China with this crew at the helm," he concluded.

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said the UK steel industry was now paying the price for Chancellor George Osborne's determination to woo Beijing at any price.

"The Chancellor has made a 'better relationship' with China, a cornerstone of his economic policy. Now the consequences of that decision are being felt by steel workers.

"Rather than standing up for China in the EU, by blocking higher tariffs on their steel, Osborne should be standing up to China on behalf of the UK steel industry."