EU imposes provisional safeguard measures on imports of steel products

The European Union (EU) announced on Wednesday provisional safeguard measures concerning imports of a number of steel products to address the alleged "diversion" of steel exports to the EU market as a result of the recently imposed U.S. tariffs.

The safeguard measures will come into effect on Thursday and traditional imports of steel products will not be affected.

"The U.S. tariffs on steel products are causing trade diversion, which may result in serious harm to EU steelmakers and workers in this industry," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.

"We are left with no other choice than to introduce provisional safeguard measures to protect our domestic industry against a surge of imports," she said.

The provisional safeguard measures can remain in place for a maximum of 200 days. The Commission will continue to monitor steel imports and take a final decision at the latest by early next year.

The measures are part of the three-pronged response outlined by the European Commission earlier this year. As a result of the import duties applied by the United States as of March 23 under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act of 1962, exporting steel to the U.S. has become less attractive. The Commission said there are indications that steel suppliers have diverted some of their exports from the United States to the EU.

On March 26, the European Commission opened a safeguard investigation on imports of a number of steel products into the EU, in response to recent U.S. metal tariffs plans.

China's Ministry of Commerce said immediately after the Commission's the safeguard investigation opening that while necessary response from the EU side to the U.S. tariffs is understandable, adopting global safeguards is not the right choice.

Wang Hejun, head of the Chinese ministry's Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said the safeguard will further aggravate the chaos and panic of international trade caused by U.S. measures and cause a more serious and damaging impact on the normal international trade order.

Source: Xinhua