EU Proposes Changes to Steel Safeguards
The European Union is considering changes to its global safeguards on steel products in effect since July 2018 in response to U.S. Section 232 tariffs, the European Commission said in an Aug. 14 press release. According to a recent notification to the World Trade Organization, the EU is considering changes to tariff-rate quotas on several steel products, as well as a general slowing of increases on the quotas.
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For its global safeguard TRQ on hot-rolled steel products, the EU is considering limiting to 30% the quarterly share of single exporting country. The EU will also restrict one of two TRQ categories for metallic coated sheets to goods used in the automotive sector, while keeping a separate TRQ for non-automotive metallic coated sheets. For its TRQ for large welded tubes, the EU is considering replacing country-specific TRQs with a single global TRQ.
The EU also notified the WTO that it is considering slowing down liberalization of imports by “reducing the pace of progressive increase of the import quotas from 5% to 3%,” it said. “This less pronounced liberalisation means that that the total quotas available during the third period will be limited to 31,6 million tonnes, i.e. 1,5 million tonnes below the distorting 2018 record,” it said.
The EU is proposing for the changes to take effect on Oct. 1. “The proposed adjustments will now be discussed with all affected WTO members. Following these consultations, the adjustments will be submitted for approval to EU Member States, so that they can become effective as of October 2019,” the press release said.