The European Commission (EC) has announced that it will adopt a prior surveillance system for imports of certain iron and steel products, including semi-finished, hot rolled/cold rolled and stainless products, from third countries in order to further protect the EU steel industry. Accordingly, the EC will start to monitor imports of certain steel products in order to provide advanced statistical information permitting rapid analysis of import trends from all non-EU member countries.
According to the EC’s statement, because of the recent trends of imports of steel products, recent developments in the Chinese market, surging imports and depressed steel prices worldwide, rapid and anticipated trade data is necessary to deal with the vulnerability of the EU steel market to sudden changes in world steel markets. The EC also stated that the prior surveillance system is particularly important in the present crisis situation marked by uncertainties as to whether demand will structurally pick up and whether the EU industry will actually benefit from it.
The products subject to prior surveillance system currently fall under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers 7207.11.14, 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7213, 7214, 7215, 7216, 7217, 7219, 7220,221, 7222, 7223, 7225, 7226,227, 7228, 7301, 7302, 7303, 7304, 7305, 7306, 7307.19.10, 7307.23, 7307.91.00, 7307.93.11, 7307.93.19, 7307.99.80, 7307.12.90, 7318.12.90, 7318.14.91, 7318.14.99, 7318.15.41, 73.18.15.59, 7318.15.69, 7318.15.69, 7318.15.81, 7318.15.89, 7318.15.90, 7318.16.91, 7318.16.99, 7318.19.00, 7318.21.00 and 7318.22.00.