EUNIRPA, the European Non Integrated Wire Rod Processing Association, has heavily criticized the European Steel Association (EUROFER) for its one-sided campaign with only short-term goals for stricter trade measures, stating that the EU steel industry is composed of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises distributing and processing steel for downstream users, not only steel producers.
While acknowledging that the EU steel industry is dealing with an unprecedented challenge due to the coronavirus pandemic and that it should be supported with strong measures, EUNIRPA said that the measures should benefit not only the producers but the industry as a whole.
According to EUNIRPA, EU industrial users, which account for thousands of jobs in the EU, need an uninterrupted flow of supply of steel products through imports. However, EUROFER, it said, completely ignores the interests of the EU industrial users and distributors, adding that its proposals are completely against free trade and WTO principles. EUNIRPA warned that the proposal applied indistinctively to all steel products would have particularly adverse effects on a number of sectors, including, in particular, the construction sector.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, following the proposed adjustments in steel import quotas, EUROFER called for stronger measures and a reduction in quota volumes.