18 August 2026 – US Ambassador Andrew Puzder has touched a sensitive nerve in the Financial Times. The EU criticises American tariffs as protectionist, while simultaneously defending CBAM as a climate instrument. EU steel tariffs: first comes the political objective, then Brussels constructs the figures to match.
EU and US: Brussels Discovers Protectionism, When Others Do It
US Ambassador Andrew Puzder has touched a sensitive nerve in the Financial Times. The EU criticises American Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminium as protectionist, while simultaneously defending CBAM as a climate instrument. Puzder’s argument is that a border charge remains, economically speaking, a tariff, even if Brussels justifies it on the basis of CO2.
One may argue over whether CBAM and tariffs are legally the same thing. In the end, both are taxes. For the importer, however, one thing matters above all: goods from third countries become more expensive. That is precisely why the moral elevation of European trade policy is becoming increasingly unconvincing.
Brussels Is Building Its Own Protective Wall
What is almost being overlooked in the current debate is that, since 1 July, the EU has massively tightened its own steel protection measures. Duty free quotas were reduced to 18.3 million tonnes, around 47 per cent less than in 2024. Above the quota, a 50 per cent tariff applies.
And that is not all. The Commission is already examining an extension to further product groups, including stainless steel wire, other wire products, cast pipes and forged bars. European associations are also already loudly demanding an extension to downstream products.
Free Trade, Brussels Style
The Commission insists on its “regulatory autonomy” in its dealings with Washington. It is entitled to do so.
But it should then stop treating American protectionism as a trade policy sin while simultaneously stacking CBAM, quotas and 50 per cent steel tariffs of its own. The further Brussels expands its own trade barriers, the more arguments it hands Washington for the next round of escalation.
Free trade works poorly when every protective wall in Brussels is supposedly not a protective wall simply because it carries a European name.
EU Steel Tariffs: First the Political Objective, Then the Numbers Are Constructed
Since August, the EU has also been applying its new steel protection measures to trading partners with which it has free trade agreements. Those affected include Türkiye, Switzerland, Serbia and North Macedonia.
Once the respective quotas are exhausted, a 50 per cent tariff applies. The basis is the new EU steel regulation, with a total tariff rate quota of 18.35 million tonnes. For such an intervention to work politically and legally, Brussels first had to construct an import problem.
And that problem can indeed be found, provided the right period is selected.
Türkiye Becomes a Global Problem
For once, the Commission looks only at the period from 2023 to 2025. During this period, recorded steel imports rose from 28.51 million to 32.89 million tonnes, an increase of 15 per cent.
Brussels simply declares 2021 and 2022 to be unrepresentative because of the exceptional market conditions following Covid, because those years would not have produced the desired result.
The individual data, however, tell a different story.
Around 60 per cent of the entire increase in imports came from Türkiye alone. Excluding Türkiye, imports from the remaining third countries increased by only around seven per cent.
The statistical game becomes even more interesting when it comes to the base year. In 2025, Turkish imports were 87.8 per cent higher than in 2023. Compared with 2021, however, the increase was just 9.1 per cent.
And 2021 was by no means fundamentally unsuitable. The EU itself has used that year as a reference in previous steel trade defence proceedings.
Today, it apparently no longer fits the desired narrative. Steel imports in 2025 were 1.65 per cent lower than in 2021, the EU’s official statistical base year.
And Then There Is Switzerland
Swiss deliveries fell by 18.9 per cent between 2023 and 2025. Nevertheless, the Commission states that the criterion of increased import volumes is also fulfilled for Switzerland.
Bosnia recorded almost the same decline. There, however, the conclusion is the opposite: no increase in imports.
Europe does not have a steel import problem. Brussels primarily has a problem with figures that do not fit the policy it wants. In any case, Brussels, as well as the governments of some EU member states, should finally stop immediately dismissing unwelcome reports as “fake news” when they themselves are quite good at producing such content.
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