The European Commission (EC) intends to impose definitive measures in the form of tariff-rate, partially country-specific and quarterly quotas for 26 steel product categories for its safeguard case against steel dumping in Europe, the EC said on Friday January 4.
The EC has notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of its findings in the safeguard investigation on certain steel products. The level for quotas will be set at the average level of imports over the last three years. In addition, the EC has found it necessary to "modulate the tariff-rate quota level above the average import level for the last three years to take account of the competing interests between users and importers, on the one hand, and the Union industry, on the other hand." Therefore, the quotas should be based on the average import levels between 2015 and 2017, plus 5%.If quotas are exceeded, an additional 25% duty will be applied.As the number of supplying countries is significant for each product category, it is not reasonable to allocate a quota to each of them, the EC said. In addition, it is necessary to...