The appointment of a European chief trade enforcement officer should ease trade problems in the steel and aluminium sectors and help tackle Chinese excess capacity, industry experts told a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) in Brussels.
The new officer will work under the guidance of the new European Union commissioner for trade. If appointed, as expected, by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) next week, former EU agriculture commissioner, Phil Hogan, will take office on November 1. A representative for the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade told MEPs at the meeting on September 25, that with regard to the current situation of the EU steel and aluminium sectors, that the commission was "fighting side-by-side with industry to tackle Chinese overcapacity and United States' attempts to cartelize world markets" with its tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium. One possible avenue was appointing a chief trade enforcement officer, to "ensure that...