Brussels, 27/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has adopted safeguard measures to guard against floods of steel imports resulting from US protectionism, after some 15 million tonnes were barred from the US steel market by measures introduced in Washington last week. The provisional regulation adopted on Wednesday by the European Commission will not last a day longer than the US restrictions, re-affirmed European Commission President Romano Prodi, seizing on the opportunity to call on President Bush and his administration to avoid going any further down the road of unilateral protectionism. He said that Europe had not hesitated to defend its own interests coherently, conscientiously and firmly, while remaining at the US's side in terms of "strategic interests" close to the EU. He added that the close relations between the EU and the US would not suffer from this restricted "friction" that only applied to the steel industry.
Mr Prodi stressed that the "substantial" closure of the US steel market to foreign steel, particularly EU steel, was a serious problem but it should not be made out to be bigger than it really was. At a press conference alongside Commissioner Lamy, Trade Commissioner, he said that the EU was not looking for confrontation, but simply wanted to protect the interests of European industry, as it was its duty to do. Europe has to stand up for itself, he explained, and not allow others to tell it what to do. Yesterday's decision on Galileo, he said, is there to remind us in a striking manner of our capacity to promote our own interests, including long-term interests. It will be a necessary and healthy element of competition in the world of satellite navigation that has been monopolised and controlled in the past by countries like the United States, he said of the Galileo project, a "strong" and "coherent" project. Mr Lamy said it was clear that given the problems with the Kyoto Protocol, trading relations and Galileo, that the EU has a very clear political line. Our strategic interests, he said, are close to those of the United States, particularly when it comes to fighting terrorism, etc. We stand shoulder to shoulder on that. But it cannot interfere with strong, conscientious and shared political choices, like the ones we have just made. Kyoto is essential for paving the way for sustainable development, and Galileo is essential as an instrument of independence in terms of logistics. There is coherence in all this, he said, and a European policy. The EU is asserting itself and its autonomy and its interests; conscious and firm in its choices and actions, which are virtues rather than weaknesses, asserted the Commissioner. The fact that the EU is defending its interests, while scrupulously respecting international laws, will not challenge the close relations between the EU and the United States, he explained, since the EU had to preserve its legitimate interests but should not let short-term national interests dictate its policy or allow them to jeopardise the functioning of the market.
Expressing stupefaction at the United States "deviation" with regard to the single market, President Prodi said that he had spent years in Italy when he was Prime Minister rationalising a steel industry that was running out of steam on world markets suffering from growing overproduction and said that he knew that meant facing up to thousands of people protesting because they are scared of losing their jobs, but said he also knew that this was vital in order to ensure a happier and more prosperous future for workers and their families. Closing off their markets, he said, the United States only put off the inevitable and inflicted suffering on other workers. The jobs they were artificially preserving would be lost by other people elsewhere in the world, he said (in gist). He insisted that the technical measures the EU had just taken abided by World Trade Organisation rules and were not part of a general disagreement with the US but were limited to steel. The Commission is responsible for protecting the legitimate interests of our Member States, he said, as well as commitments to defend the free market.
With the deployment of the safeguard provision, the "three pillars" of European strategy aimed at minimising the impact of US restrictions and encouraging Washington to give them up "are now in place", stressed Pascal Lamy. The Union has thus: initiated litigious proceedings in Geneva, begun "like others" -especially China and Japan- discussions with the United States on compensatory measures, and taken defensive measures "against the effect of closing the US market, which has already begun to entail transfers to the European market", he said. European steel imports, which were around a little over 22 million tonnes in 1998, went from 26.63 million tonnes last year with a particularly strong rise in the second half of the year after the announcement of American safeguard measures likely to result in blocking the first steel outlet in the world. Some 15 million tonnes of exports usually absorbed in the United States, that is, "over 50% of our current import volume", could be deflected, partially or completely, towards the Union, said Mr Lamy, who greatly insisted on the legality of this provision, given the probable American offensive in Geneva.
Mr Lamy said that they were only putting in an "airbag" which would come into action in the case of a sudden rise in imports, which will not decline compared to the average recorded over the past three years plus 10%, that is, more or less the level reached in 2001 for each product category. The deep reason for this provision is that "we must face up to the tropical steel fever" from which the United States has been suffering for a long time. This is an old disease, said the Commissioner, which has never been treated and which regularly brings on sudden rises in temperature. He said "we do not wish to be contaminated because we have been vaccinated for at least a decade", he said.