Brussels, 20/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - After the United States simply took note (in the words of the spokesperson for Commissioner Pascal Lamy) in Geneva on Tuesday of the European Union's request for compensation (EUR 2.5 billion) in the steel dispute, the Safeguard Committee and the 133 Committee are expected to inform Member States on Friday of the defensive measures being considered by the Commission to safeguard the Community market in the event of a sudden rise in steel imports as a result of the US's protectionist measures. According to European sources, the Commission is planning to introduce an overall provisional quota. The Commission is reported to be preparing quota figures duly reflecting the level of recent Community imports. Any imports over and above this amount would be subject to import duties. Such a provisional safeguard measure is authorised under the WTO on the basis of sufficient presumed risk and would last for six months (split into two three-month periods) during which an overall quota would be set (not broken down between countries). The Commission is reported to believe that setting a quota on a country-by-country basis would not be in the interests of certain countries and also because it feels that an overall quota is less likely to result in the Community market being flooded with imports from any particular country. As the European Trade Commissioner stressed on Tuesday (see yesterday's EUROP E, p.10), it would only take a matter of days to implement the measure. On Tuesday, a US government spokesperson indicated that the US was likely to wait until the end of its consultations with the EU before actually levying duty on steel imports, even though it comes into force on 20 March.