EU Amends Steel Safeguard TRQs

The European Union is making adjustments to its safeguards on steel products implemented in July 2018 in response to U.S. Section 232 tariffs, the European Commission said in a Sept. 27 press release.

For its global safeguard TRQ on hot-rolled steel products, the EU is limiting to 30% the quarterly share of single exporting country, it said in a notice in the Sept. 27 Official Journal. The EU will also restrict one of two TRQ categories for metallic coated sheets to goods used in the automotive sector, while keeping a separate TRQ for non-automotive metallic coated sheets. Metallic coated sheets for automotive use will be subject to an “end-use procedure … in order to demonstrate that they are used for the manufacturing of automotive parts,” the EU said.

The EU is also amending the application of its safeguard to rebar and non-alloy steel wire rod so that no country can “use, on its own, more than 30% of the residual tariff-rate quota of the last quarter of each year of application of measures.”

The EU will slow down the liberalization of the safeguard TRQs by “reducing the pace of progressive increase of the import quotas from 5% to 3%,” the press release said. According to its August notice of proposed changes, that means total quotas available “during the third period will be limited to 31,6 million tonnes, i.e. 1,5 million tonnes below the distorting 2018 record.”

Finally, the EU is also updating the list of exclusions from safeguards for developing countries, on the basis of more recent imports statistics, the EU said.