BIRMINGHAM, England — The U.K. government has said that trade retaliation remains on the table in response to the European Union’s new steel safeguard measures.

The proposals would impose 50 percent tariffs on imports above a strict new quota, dealing a devastating blow to Britain’s embattled steelmakers, which export half of what they produce to the EU.

Speaking at the Trade Remedy Authority’s annual summit in Birmingham, Kate Joseph, the Department for Business and Trade’s director general for trade relations, said: “We have a number of different options available to us, and at this point, we’re not making any decisions about how we would use them, but all of this remains possible.”

Joseph added that the U.K. is “clear that we will do what we need to do in order to defend the steel industry.” 

Industry Minister Chris McDonald is meeting with steelmakers on Thursday to listen to their concerns, and EU Trade chief Maroš Sefčovič is set to meet with his U.K. counterpart at the G20 trade ministers meeting in South Africa this weekend.

A senior EU official said the bloc has “no other choice” and is “in deep trouble because of this problem of overcapacities,” but encouraged the two slides to sit down and discuss outcomes. 

“We are in constant conversation with EU colleagues, and we’ll continue that conversation over the next few days,” said Joseph. “At the moment, I think it’s probably unclear exactly how this is going to play out.”