The European Commission (EC) should remove its 5% import quota increase as it makes safeguard measures ineffective and puts jobs in the EU steel segment at risk, the European steel association (Eurofer) said on July 3.
"We call on the EC to heed our call and those of member states that have already expressed concerns about the rise - and to respond by undoing this out-of-step expansion before it further undermines the safeguard and the sector that relies upon it," the director general of Eurofer, Axel Eggert, saidThe EC has increased quotas for imported steel products by 5% year on year from July 1 - one year after the preliminary safeguard measures were set. The increase was made automatically despite protests by European steelmakers, concerns among some member states and the fact that steel demand in the European Union is forecast to decrease, according to Eurofer."The 5% rise in the quota was programed into the regulation that implemented the EU safeguard measures. However, there...