German Steel Official Suggests Protections Needed for E.U. Producers

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The new steel tariffs implemented by the United States are leading some European steel makers to argue for their own protections.

In March, President Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, though some trading partners have been at least temporarily exempted. Trade restrictions had been expected for several months leading up to the announcement, and the president of the Federation of the German Steel Industry was quoted in the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung as noting that, “In the first three months [of 2018], imports from Russia rose by 139 percent from a year earlier, those from Turkey by 76 percent.” Reuters reported that, because of this, Hans Juergen Kerkhoff, the German steel representative, “urged the EU to quickly implement measures to prevent foreign steel from flooding the EU market, for instance by imposing its own quotas or tariffs.”

“I think the EU is in a good position [for negotiations], but it must present a united front and cannot let itself be divided,” Kerkhoff said.

In late March, the European Union launched an investigation to determine how the tariffs imposed by the United States will affect the E.U. market and whether it needs to respond with its own “safeguards.” While the investigation was prompted by multiple factors that have contributed to “a negative impact on the market shares of the Union producers,” the announcement specifically noted the impact of “recent developments, such as any trade diversion resulting from the US measures.”

In April, European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, expressed concern about the impact of the tariffs, saying, “We are a seeing a recovery and a potential growth in trade and global growth, but it is threatened by these tariffs. We can see, already, tendencies of distortion of trade that affects the EU as well.”

Courtesy: AIIS