At the end of its investigation, the European Commission confirmed that definitive safeguard measures on steel imports into the European Union have been imposed since Saturday 2 February. Until July 2021, 26 categories of steel products are thus subject to tariff quotas.
After the Trump administration imposed new customs duties on steel under Section 232, European producers had sounded the alarm to the Commission concerned about the diversion of steel exports to the European market that US sanctions were causing.
The investigation, which covered the period from 2013 to 2017, distinguished three families of steel products, aligned with those established by the steel industry, namely flat products, long products and tubes, in order to "dispel any doubts about the reliability of the conclusions reached at an overall level", the Regulation states. At the end of this investigation, the institution actually noted a sharp increase in imports of steel products in 26 of the 28 categories investigated.
Provisional safeguard measures have been applied since July 2018.
Organisation of tariff quotas
According to the Commission's press release, "these measures (…) have been carefully shaped to preserve a continued flow of imports that guarantees effective competition in the European steel market and sufficient choice for the numerous EU users of steel."
The 26 product categories are subject to a global quota, based on the average of imports over the last three years; beyond this quota, a 25% duty is applied. The quotas will be divided by quarter and available to exporters from April 2019. Some supplier countries have also been allocated specific quotas.
These safeguards also comply with WTO rules, in that they are applied to all exporting countries, with exceptions for developing countries.
These measures will be gradually liberalised, increasing the quota level by 5% each year from 1 July 2019.
Review clause
The Regulation provides that the Commission may adjust the level or allocation of tariff quotas for certain product categories if circumstances so require. Such a review could, for example, be justified by changes in demand in the EU or developments related to Section 232, or to correct their negative impact on trading partners with developing economies.
The Commission will initiate the first review investigation no later than 1 July 2019 and will consider at least one review at the end of each year of application of the measures.
To read the regulation: https://bit.ly/2BcYnZp (Hermine Donceel)