Oct. 7 (UPI) — The European Union has announced it will match President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on steel, causing the United Kingdom’s steel industry to quake.

The new tariffs would cause a crisis in the U.K. steel industry, as 80% of British exports are to the EU, according to a lobbying group representing the sector. Unions said the tariffs could kill the industry, The Guardian reported.

The European Commission’s plan would sharply cut the amount of steel that can be imported to the EU without tariffs to 18.3 million tons a year, an almost 50% drop, and would almost double the tariff rate to 50%.

The EU’s goal is to cut down on global overcapacity, which brings cheap steel from China and hurts steel jobs in Europe, the New York Times reported. It is also a reaction to Trump’s tariffs on EU steel, which could increase the likelihood that global producers will send their steel to Europe, flooding the market.

“Global overcapacity is damaging our industry,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

“We have global overcapacity, unfair competition, state aid, and undercutting in prices, and we are reacting to that,” Stéphane Séjourné, the European Commission’s executive vice president for prosperity and industrial strategy, said at a news conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “Eighteen thousand jobs were lost in the steel sector in 2024. That’s too many, and we had to put a stop to that.

“The European steel industry was on the verge of collapse — we are protecting it so that it can invest, decarbonize, and become competitive again,” Séjourné said.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters during a flight to India that officials were in discussions with the EU about the tariffs, according to The Guardian.

“In relation to the question of tariffs or other measures, as you’d expect, we are in discussions with the EU about this, as we’re in discussions with the U.S. about it,” Starmer said. “So I’ll be able to tell you more in due course, but we are in discussions as you’d expect.”

The U.K. government took control of Chinese-owned plants in Scunthorpe, England, earlier this year, while Liberty Steel plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge, England, fell into government control last month.

U.K. industry minister Chris McDonald said it was “vital” to “protect trade flows between the U.K. and EU” and that he would meet with industry leaders on Thursday. He said he was “pushing the European Commission for urgent clarification of the impact of this move on the U.K.”

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, U.K. national officer with the GMB trade union, called the tariffs a “hammer blow” that “could end steelmaking in the U.K. if safeguards aren’t secured,” according to The Guardian.