EU modifies safeguard measures on metallic coated sheets

The European Commission has implemented a regulation to modify the definitive safeguard measures against imports of certain steel products. The changes concern categories 4A and 4B, i.e., metallic coated sheets, and metallic coated sheets for the automotive industry only.

The Commission explained that the close cooperation between all parties involved in the importation process, from initial orders up to the moment imports reached the end-user of the product, did not work as originally expected. "As a result, an important proportion of imports under product category 4B could not take place after the entry into force of the amended measures... It was also not possible to speed up the administrative process in order to obtain the necessary end-use authorisations," the new regulation stated.

"A significant proportion of category 4B products is held at the Union's customs border awaiting customs clearance. That seriously and negatively affects, or even disrupts, supply chains based on a "just-in-time" system, in particular because the Union"s automobile industry heavily relies on highly specialised steel grades," the statement continued. Accordingly, the European Commission decided to revoke the end-use procedure for this category.

The Commission also said that "following consultations with Korea, the exporting country mostly affected by the end-use mechanism, the Commission considered that the allocation of the tariff-rate quota volume between product categories 4A and 4B for this country should also be amended. This is necessary in order to take into account the volume of automotive steel grades that were imported under product category 4A since the entry into force of the amending regulation, given the impossibility to import them under the product category 4B subject to the end-use mechanism.

The new regulation has retroactive effect, thereby revoking, as from 1 October 2019, the end-use requirement introduced by the amending regulation. The section related to categories 4A and 4B is replaced as follows.