Brussels, 03/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Russia and the European Union reached consensus last Thursday on most aspects of a new agreement concerning supplies of Russian steel to the EU, which is likely to be signed before the end of the year.
The parties agreed to increase steel export quotas to the EU (without including alloyed steel in the quotas). They also defined basic approaches to export customer duties on ferrous scrap metal. At the end of April 1999, Russia slammed an export duty of 15% of customs value, but not less than EUR 15/tonne, on scrap metal exports.. The EU felt this would hit the EU's own steel mills (which use Russian scrap) and in retaliation, it reduced its import quotas for Russian steel imports by 12%. It is expected that the new agreement will be signed for three years, but if Russia joins the World Trade Organisation in that time, the agreement will be invalidated as contravening WTO requirements. The current EU/Russia steel agreement (signed in 1997) expires in December.