5 June 2026 – Will the country-specific import quotas for steel under the EU safeguard successor come only at the very last minute? Is the Commission deliberately delaying publication of this decisive data? Melt & Pour for steel: EU launches consultations – now every SME voice is needed.
EU Steel Tariffs: Is the Commission Delaying Publication of the Country-Specific Quotas?
The successor to the EU safeguard measure on certain steel products is set to start on 1 July 2026. With 50% tariffs and import quotas reduced by 47%, this represents a substantial burden for Europe’s steel-processing economy.
Reliable framework conditions and transparent information are therefore of decisive importance for many market participants. From an administration that never tires of claiming it wants to create fair conditions for all market participants, one should at the very least expect that it does not deliberately delay the country-specific import quotas for steel products in more than two dozen product categories and publish them only at the very last minute.
Country-Specific Quotas Only at the Last Minute?
However, according to market sources and insider information, the responsible Directorate-General for Trade under Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is planning to publish precisely these country-specific quotas only in the final week of June. How such harmful behaviour towards the European economy is supposed to be compatible with Article 41 – Right to good administration – of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is certainly not only a mystery to us.
In principle, this feels reminiscent of the rushed introduction of the CO2 tax CBAM in December 2025, when decisive calculation bases were withheld for far too long.
Thorsten Gerber, CEO of the Gerber Group, said today: “It cannot be that the fundamental principles of the European Union are once again being violated here. I call on the Commission to publish the country-specific import quotas for steel immediately. Anything else comes at the expense of our economic backbone, small and medium-sized enterprises.”
Melt & Pour: Your Voice Is Needed Now – SMEs Must Get Involved
The EU Commission is currently consulting on the implementation of the Melt & Pour proof requirement under the EU Steel Regulation. The survey has been running since yesterday, 4 June 2026 – deadline: 2 July 2026.
What is at stake: an implementing act will determine which documents importers will have to submit in future to prove the place where steel was melted. If excessively bureaucratic requirements are set here, this will hit small traders, importers, and processors disproportionately hard – while large, vertically integrated corporations can easily shoulder the compliance burden.
Melt & Pour: Act Now!
Act now. Take part in the consultation and demand practical, proportionate proof requirements. Those who remain silent tacitly accept what Brussels decides.
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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.
