The European Steel Association (EUROFER), which represents European steel producers, asked the European Commission for a drastic reduction of current safeguard quota levels amid the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter signed by EUROFER president Geert Van Poelvoorde and director general Axel Eggert, EUROFER said that the health emergency constitutes an unprecedented challenge and requires "urgent, decisive, and comprehensive action" at the EU, national, regional and local levels.
The association said the European steel industry had already lost about 25 percent of its workforce and 20 percent of production volumes between 2009 and 2019 "as a result of massive global steel excess capacity and trade distortions". It recalled that "the significant downturn in EU steel demand in 2019 rendered the
otherwise-welcomed EU steel safeguards ineffective for a large part of our industry, even before the Covid-19 pandemic". Now, continued EUROFER, "the impact of Covid-19 is emptying order books, forcing massive cuts in production, idling of entire facilities, and short-time working hours and temporary lay-offs of workers". According to the association, governments and the EU "should prevent Covid-19 dealing the ultimate blow to our industry". Therefore, it recommended that the current quota levels should be reduced for a period of six months and by about 75 percent. "In return, the tariff level of 25 percent could be somewhat reduced," EUROFER added.
With regard to the European Council's decision to implement a "more ambitious and wide-ranging crisis management system within the EU," EUROFER proposed "a regulation imposing crisis- and security-related steel import restrictions based on Article 207 TFEU" which enables the adoption of all appropriate measures to implement the common commercial policy"; the recognition of steel mills as 'essential'; an aid to avoid carbon leakage due to CO2 cost in power prices under the EU Emissions Trading System"; and avoidance of Covid-19 increasing carbon leakage on direct emissions.