The Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has announced a special protective measure for hot rolled coil (HRC) for a period of one year in the form of a special quota. The EEC has set the quota volume at 1,327,758 mt and imports exceeding this volume will be subject to a duty of 20 percent. The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) is the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) which includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Armenia,
The quota will come into force on December 1, 2019, by which time the EEC Board will determine the procedure for distributing individual quotas for exporting countries. Meanwhile, developing or least developed countries, members of the Eurasia Economic Union common tariff preference system (except South Korea), as well as CIS countries (except Ukraine) will be exempt from the protective measure.
SteelOrbis understands that this protective measure might not have the targeted protective effect, as it is considered to be a bit too generous. The situation is similar to the EU quota for HRC which mostly targets Turkey, the largest HRC exporter to the EU. However, the EU’s overall quota volume for HRC from all countries stands at 2,172,108 mt for the period between July 1 and September 30 this year, while the remaining volume totals 1,466,020 mt, indicating that it does not provide sufficient protection for the EU market.