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Reports suggesting a US decision to maintain tariffs on British steel is linked to Brexit and Northern Ireland are a "false narrative", trade minister Penny Mordaunt has said.
She said wrangles with Brussels over the Irish border were "entirely separate" from trade with Washington.
It comes after the Financial Times reported the issue was stopping the UK resolving the steel row with America.
The US lifted tariffs on EU steel last month but kept them on UK steel.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Mordaunt said the FT's report "might be true in terms of how some people in the US feel, but it is a false narrative. These are two entirely separate issues."
"We don't do ourselves any favours if we perpetuate these false narratives," she added.
The Trump-era tariffs of 25% on steel products and 10% on aluminium were imposed on the EU in 2018, when the UK was still part of the trading bloc.
The US agreed to end the duties on EU products in the autumn, but the tariffs, which nearly halved UK steel exports to its second largest market, remain in place on British steel.