Brussels, 02/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - After Eurofer (see EUROPE of 29 March, p.13), the EMF welcomed the firmness with which the European Union reacted to defend itself "against floods of steel imports resulting from US protectionism". The measures are the "right reaction, at the right time", said Reinhard Kuhlmann, Secretary General of the European Metalworkers' Federation. Europe must defend its own interests through appropriate means, Mr Kuhlmann said in a press release, specifying that "this is not the path to a trade war", and that both parties should return to "multilateral cooperation and clear support for free and fair trade".
Given a decision that turns some 15 million tonnes of steel from the American market, Europe should defend an industry that has been through a long period of restructuring, said the EMF, noting that European workers have "suffered a lot" from a process that has brought about company closures and redundancies. At the same time, the European metalworkers welcomed the fact that the regulation adopted by the European Commission is provisional (see details in EUROPE of 28 March, pages 7 and 8), and stress that the European provision "should not last a day longer than the US restrictions". But the United States must understand that "unilateral protectionism is no solution to the current steel crisis in the United States and over-capacity worldwide", the EMF hammered home.
According to the European steelworkers, it is "obvious that the United States must pay compensation so that the consequences of irrational and unilateral measures taken by Washington" do not have an adverse effect on the recovery that is taking shape, for the economy in general and for the prospects of the steel industry in particular. Our "clear strategy", stresses the EMF, is to return to "civilised" procedures allowing unilateral trade barriers to be done away with completely.