The politician website January 4th news. Brussels announced on the same day that the EU plans to maintain import tariff quotas for imports from July 2018 until July 2021.

The EU plans to impose a 25% tariff on steel imports that exceed 105% of the average import value in 2015-2017. The European Commission has notified the WTO of this safeguard. This measure targets all non-EU member states and will set separate national quotas for major exporters such as Turkey.

Safeguards are designed to stabilize European market prices and prevent exports from shifting as a response to US steel tariffs. EU steel producers said that tariff quotas effectively prevent steel from flooding into Europe and require the European Commission to adopt permanent safeguards. Steel users, especially car manufacturers, want to remove these restrictions. The European Commission announced today that it supports steel producers, but has given an additional 5% duty-free import quota. According to the EU, the EU steel industry has not fully recovered from the global steel crisis and is still facing downward pressure on prices. The European Commission said that member states will vote on these measures in mid-January.