Britain has made its disappointment with US import tariffs on metals known and is optimistic about a resolution.
"The European Union is not the problem here in terms of steel supplies to the US, or the United Kingdom within that," , UK trade minister Liam Fox said at an event in New York.
The European Union is seeking an exemption for all 28 countries in the bloc, including the UK, from President Donald Trump's import tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.
Fox's comments followed a meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Wednesday.
The two discussed the EU's requested exemption and the continued trade relationship between the United States and Britain after Britain's planned departure from the EU.
"To apply a tariff to us on national security grounds, when some of this steel is actually going to America's national security would seem a trifle strange," said Fox, noting that of the 1 per cent of steel imported from Britain, some was used by American military programs.
Trump exempted Canada and Mexico from the tariffs when they were formally announced last week and offered the possibility of excluding other allies, backtracking from an earlier "no-exceptions" stance.
Over 7 per cent of the UK's steel was exported to the United States in 2017, worth approximately 360 million pounds, according to UK Steel.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has said that if the EU is not exempted, it would set retaliatory tariffs of 25 per cent on a range of US products, whose annual imports to the bloc are worth 2.8 billion euros ($US3.45 billion).
