The European Commission has announced the findings of its functioning review of the safeguard measure on imports of steel products initiated on December 17, 2024, and has made adjustments to the measures. The commission has decreased the tariff-rate quota volumes for some products by lowering the liberalization rate to 0.1 percent from the current one percent to ensure the effectiveness of the measure. The EU’s safeguard measures will still expire on June 30, 2026.
Also, Category 1 (Non-alloy and other alloy HRC) has been split into two as Category 1A and Category 1B. Category 1B will represent a very small volume covering flat rolled products of clad steel under the code 7212 60 00, while the remaining codes are included in category 1A.
In addition to the decrease in the quota volumes, the commission has also reduced the cap for each country under the “other countries” category on non-alloy and other alloy hot rolled sheets and strips (1A) to 13 percent from the previous 15 percent, while it has introduced caps for certain steel product categories. Also, the commission will revoke the carry-over of unused volumes from one quota quarter to the next in the categories where significant import pressure is identified. Meanwhile, the EC has noted that, for certain steel products, some exporters will no longer be able to access the residual quota volumes in the last quarter after they exhaust their country-specific quota.
Besides, the commission reversed the redistribution of quota volumes of steel products in Categories 1A, 7, 16 and 21 initially allocated for Russia, but up to 65 percent of the volumes, while it retained 35 percent of the volumes subject to sanctions in these categories redistributed over all origins.
