To tackle Chinese steel, the EU plans to double steel tariffs and halve import quotas
The European Commission announced unprecedented measures on Tuesday: doubling import tariffs to protect the EU's steel industry.
Numbers speak louder. According to the professional organization "World Steel," last year China alone produced over 1 billion tons of steel, accounting for more than half of the world's total production, far ahead of India (149 million tons), Japan (84 million tons), and the United States (79 million tons). Compared to this, European countries are dwarfed: Germany produced only 37 million tons, Spain 12 million tons, and France less than 11 million tons.
The European steel industry has been in serious turmoil for years. Many European steel plants have closed, and the EU is concerned about the chain reaction, as the industry still has 300,000 direct jobs and 2.5 million indirect jobs in the EU.
Vice President of the European Commission, Serron, said, "In 2024 alone, the metallurgical industry eliminated 18,000 direct jobs. This situation must stop."
The European Commission plans to first reduce the annual quota of foreign steel that can be imported into the EU duty-free by 47%. That means the duty-free quota for steel should be reduced to 18.3 million tons, equivalent to the total amount of steel imported by the EU in 2013. After that, the market will face permanent imbalance due to severe overcapacity.
Another radical measure is to double the tariffs on imports exceeding the quota, increasing the tariff from 25% to 50%.
Therefore, according to the European Commission's proposal, the tariffs will be raised to a level similar to that of the United States and Canada, which still needs approval from the 27-nation group and the European Parliament.
Finally, importers of processed steel products will be required to declare in which country the raw metal was "melted and cast," a clause aimed at preventing circumvention of tariff barriers.
Vice President Serron stated before announcing the plan: "The European steel industry is on the brink of collapse. We will protect it so that it can invest, decarbonize, and regain competitiveness." EU Trade Commissioner Sevko维奇 warned, "Global overcapacity is five times the EU's annual steel consumption."
The European Commission hopes to implement these measures as soon as possible, no later than before the existing protection measures expire on July 1, 2026.
At the same time, the EU continues to negotiate with Washington to exempt tariffs on European steel, aiming to support each other between Europe and the US.
Source: rfi
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845411038599401/
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