Brussels, 04/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - As expected, last Thursday the European Union introduced safeguard measures to dissuade steel exporters shut out of the US market from sending some or all of their unsold steel in Europe, after the United States raised barriers to steel imports on 20 March. Fifteen million tonnes of steel has been shut out of the US market. The quota tariff measures (by product category rather than country by country) came into force the day the provisional regulation was published in the Official Journal (L85). The European Commission adopted the regulation as part of its strategy to protect the EU steel industry and put off exporters (see EUROPE of 28 March, pp 7/8, and of 25/26 March, p10 and preceding days). The measures will apply for six months or longer, depending on how the situation develops and if necessary will be adjusted through a "final" Council regulation decided by qualified majority voting. When they presented the measure, both Romano Prodi (European Commission President) and European Commissioner Pascal Lamy emphasised that it would not last a day longer than the US restrictions.