10 September 2024 – EU steel lobby files lawsuit against results of anti-circumvention investigation against stainless steel from Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Turkey. And the Draghi Report on EU competitiveness calls for cutting red tape and abandoning the unbridled use of punitive tariffs.
Draghi Report on EU competitiveness calls for cutting red tape
Mario Draghi’s much-anticipated report ‘The future of European competitiveness’ is extremely long and comprehensive at around 400 pages. However, it already reveals some contradictions. For example, in the case of European steel production, which on the one hand is praised by Draghi for its traditionally high-quality steel grades, but at the same time an undifferentiated comparison is made across all steel grades with hot rolled coil production costs in the EU, US, China and India (surprise: China is not the cheapest).
Positive: Unbridled use of punitive tariffs should be ended
On a positive note, however, the report criticises the unbridled use of punitive tariffs and market protection measures in Europe. It also advises liberalising this protection – as this protectionism contributes disproportionately to cost increases.
Which brings us back to the example of steel. European manufacturers are good at high-quality steel grades, but were left behind in the competition for pure commodity grades years ago. And here too, the Draghi Report calls for such industries (e.g. EU steel manufacturers) not to be protected at the taxpayer’s expense and at all costs. Instead, more competition should take place here, which would ultimately contribute to a significant revitalisation of the EU internal market.
Report states: CBAM is a market defence measure
At the same time, Part B of the Draghi Report also specifies once again exactly what the EU Carbon Border Tax CBAM is all about:
‘The European Green Deal includes financial support (e.g. through NextGenerationEU) and market defence measures (e.g. CBAM) to support this transition.’
Source: THE FUTURE OF EUROPEAN COMPETITIVENESS – PART B | SECTION 1 | CHAPTER 4
The European Commission’s claim that CBAM is an environmental protection measure should therefore have been sufficiently exposed as a political lie.
13,000 legal acts since 2019: EU suffocating in bureaucracy
Since Ursula von der Leyen took office as Commission President in 2019, the EU has pushed through over 13,000 pieces of legislation and shackled the European economy. The European competitiveness report’s urgent call for a reduction in bureaucracy is therefore more than justified and urgently needed. In comparison, the United States has not even passed half as many legal acts in this period.
European Union must end black and white policy
Finally, there is a note in the report which points out that the European Union cannot afford a black-and-white policy on trade issues – as is sometimes the case in the United States, according to the report. However, we believe that Mrs von der Leyen is the wrong person for this. She has shown more than clearly that she can only do black and white and is therefore pursuing a policy of favouritism. And SMEs in particular are not among the favourites of the current Commission President, even if they finance 100% of her salary.
Stainless steel: EU steel lobby files lawsuit against market protection measure
The EU steel producers’ lobby organisation EUROFER had already filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice in July 2024 against the results of the two anti-circumvention investigations against cold-rolled stainless steel flat products originating in Indonesia on imports of cold-rolled stainless steel flat products consigned from Taiwan, Vietnam and Turkey. These have now been published in the Official Journal of the EU. Case T-390/24 – Case T-391/24
Both EUROFER complaints are primarily directed against the European Commission’s findings in relation to Taiwan and the stainless steel producers exempted from the measure there.
The anti-circumvention proceedings had already led to massive protests in the past, as there had been serious procedural errors and unfounded accusations by EU stainless steel producers in the proceedings. EUROFER’s complaints show that the manufacturers did not get their way in full and are now trying to inflict further damage on the domestic downstream industry through tariffs and inflationary price pressure.
With the start of the two proceedings, everyone now has to decide for themselves whether they want to import themselves or prefer to rely on specialised importers.
Latest news
- Latest EUROFER figures (deliberately?) wrong!
- Is the dispute over green EU lead markets for steel escalating?
- Germany: Positive data from the economy
We at the Gerber Group have been trading in stainless steel worldwide for over 20 years. We are your experts when it comes to purchasing, import, logistics and services. Information is a vital part of this. Because only then can you and we make the right decisions. Do you have any questions? Contact us now.
Disclaimer: Many things here represent our opinion. Others are information from the Internet. We can therefore never claim to be correct or complete. And never base a business decision solely on the news you receive from us.
