British business secretary Peter Kyle will meet EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič in Brussels on Friday to voice concerns over planned drastic cuts to tariff-free steel imports from the UK. According to the Guardian, the EU’s new quota system would reduce tariff-free imports from non-EU countries by 47% compared to 2024 levels from 1 July.
The UK steel industry had previously warned of ‘devastating’ consequences from the planned quota system. Across the Channel, industry leaders fear retaliatory measures by the UK that could hit their own sales to the island. The UK was part of the previous EU steel safeguard regime but must now design its own quota and tariff system after Brexit, also by 1 July.
European steel association Eurofer has already written to Šefčovič, protesting that the UK is ‘setting new quotas for the EU at extremely low levels’. Eurofer director general Axel Eggert said in the letter that the provisional UK quotas would cut exports of organically coated products by 80%, concrete reinforcing bar by 45%, and rails by 38%.
The safeguard measures are being introduced on both sides of the Channel to protect domestic industries from competition from China. However, the EU’s decision to cut imports from third countries by 50% and the UK’s reduction by 60% fuel fears that both sides will suffer significant collateral damage while China finds ways around them by shifting from raw steel exports to finished steel products.
Source: www.theguardian.com
