“We are going to adopt by mid-October a very strong trade protection measure,” EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said earlier this month.
Yet it could still be watered down as it passes through the European Council and the Parliament before being implemented next year.
“Given the current context characterized by the new U.S. tariffs, it appears increasingly necessary to adopt a new protective mechanism, strongly requested by the European steel industry,” said an EU diplomat.
“Together with the U.S., we will try to ring-fence our steel production,” Matthias Jørgensen, the European Commission’s head for trade with the U.S. and Canada, told POLITICO’s Competitive Europe Summit in Brussels on Thursday. “And thereby, I hope we will be able to achieve the normalization of trade steel across the Atlantic, and get rid of the U.S. tariffs,” he said, noting “we need to take action to address [overcapacity]” from China.
Yet the EU’s proposal “would be halving our biggest market,” one of the two U.K. steel industry figures quoted above said, calling it one of the “biggest disasters” ever to befall Britain’s steel industry. “It could spell a significant injury,” they said, adding firms throughout the sector are at “panic stations.”
The U.K. government has yet to publish its steel strategy for this year, which promises to set out a viable future for the sector in Britain.
“We are backing a bright future for British steelmaking, committing up to £2.5 billion of investment to rebuild the steel industry and exploring stronger trade measures to protect UK steel producers from unfair behaviours,” a U.K. government spokesperson said, adding officials are awaiting the details of the EU’s plans.
Camille Gijs contributed to this report, which has been updated.
