EU agrees to extend steel import curbs until 2021

The European Commission said on Wednesday that EU member countries had backed its plan to impose “safeguards” and that definitive measures would enter force early in February, according to the news agency Reuters.

The Commission’s plan involves a quota set at the average level of imports over the past three years, plus 5 percent. A 25 percent tariff would apply once the quotas are filled. There are also specific limits for major exporting countries. The quotas would apply for three-month periods in order to limit stockpiling and could also be increased by five percent each year.

European auto manufacturers association ACEA has called the measures protectionist. It has said that steel exports to the United States have only dropped slightly and so little extra steel has being diverted to Europe. Steel group Eurofer, whose members include world number one ArcelorMittal and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, has welcomed the safeguards.

Source: Reuters, photo: fotolia