New Delhi: Differences over a sudden change in March in the United Kingdom’s (UK) position on duty-free imports of iron and steel has reached the WTO Council for Trade in Goods, where India has joined Turkiye, China, Brazil, South Korea, Australia and others in opposing the tariffs. This turns the UK’s move into a trade-policy issue as well as a diplomatic irritant for India, as the two countries were just about to operationalise their free trade agreement, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).Starting July 1, the UK will cut tariff-free steel import quotas by 60% from current levels. Further, it will impose a hefty 50% tariff on imports beyond the new quota. This is a setback for India, whose negotiators have been scrambling since March for a “creative” solution – a special exemption within the trade deal – to overcome the hurdle.But UK steel-makers have welcomed the new tariffs, which will likely harden the country’s position. “The government’s bravery in taking the required measures represents a real shift in the culture of Westminster from protecting the ideology of free trade at any cost, to defending critical industries and national security,” UK Steel director-general Gareth Stace told the Financial Times in March, soon after the move was announced.In its defence at the WTO forum, the UK noted that the new steel measures were legitimate and necessary to protect its steel making capability, the Hindu Business Line reported Thursday, May 21, citing a trade negotiator.The WTO forum is meant to examine whether countries are using “safeguard” measures legitimately or simply concealing protectionism.The much-talked-about India-UK CETA was supposed to kick into action earlier in May, but is now delayed, until a “workaround” to the steel tariff issue is found bilaterally. “We are working together to find a creative solution around the steel measure and operationalise the agreement at an early date,” Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal had said last week, Financial Express reports.India has also said it was caught unawares – the new tariffs were not part of its initial negotiation assumptions with the UK. “On the India-UK FTA … we are very near to operationalising that. There are a few sticking points as you are aware,” Agrawal told reporters on May 15, says a Reuters report. He said the steel measures were not factored in during negotiations.Resolving the tussle over exports of iron and steel is crucial for India, because the revised import quotas and tariffs dull its gains from the CETA. While the trade deal permits 99% of Indian exports to enter the UK duty free, there is now a cloud over 7% of its exports – the iron and steel merchandise worth about $893 million it exported in 2025-26.Over the past year, the United States, the European Union and Canada have turned to tariffs to protect their iron and steel sector from global competition, especially China. India signed CETA to overcome a rash of US tariffs. It had hoped to double trade with the UK to $120 billion by 2030, while promising to reduce or eliminate duties on 92% of imports from the country.