11 March 2025 – The European Commission (EC) never tires of invoking the level playing field. Yet the EC itself has created some of the most unfair conditions on the European market. With countless market protection measures specifically on steel products, it supposedly protects domestic steel manufacturers from imports from Asia.
Level playing field: US Section 232 tariffs fairer than EU safeguard measure
The European Commission (EC) never tires of invoking the level playing field. Yet the EC itself has created some of the most unfair conditions on the European market. With countless market protection measures specifically on steel products, it supposedly protects domestic steel manufacturers from imports from Asia.
The Commission responded to the introduction of the US Section 232 tariffs in 2018 with the EU Safeguard Measure on certain steel products, calling it necessary and fair. However, the fact that the EC has repeatedly and deliberately left huge loopholes for its domestic steel mills in terms of market protection, EU Safeguard, CBAM and sanctions against Russia is of course not something that Brussels likes to hear.
Slabs are the direct precursor for hot rolled coil
A good example of this anti-competitive and unfair behaviour by the Commission on behalf of the domestic steel mills is, for example, the fact that so-called slabs made of conventional and alloyed steel and also stainless steel are not affected by any market protection or the EU Safeguard measure. Slabs are the direct precursor to the much-cited benchmark product of the steel industry: the hot rolled coil.
The US Section 232 tariffs, on the other hand, also affect imports of slabs. This can be seen once again in the latest notification from the US Customs and Border Patrol on 7 March 2025.
Source: GUIDANCE: Import Duties on Imports of Steel and Steel Derivative Products, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 7 March 2025
US Section 232 tariffs offer more fairness than EU Safeguard
This means that, even though we reject tariffs in principle, the US Section 232 tariffs are clearly superior to the EU Safeguard measure on certain steel products in terms of the much-cited level playing field. While more than 7,000,000 million tonnes of steel and stainless steel slabs can be imported into the EU unhindered every year (mainly from Russia), slabs in Section 232 have already been subject to 25% tariffs since 2018.
All exemptions from Section 232 removed
With the removal of all exemptions, General Approved Exclusions (GAE), Tariff Rate Quotas and the S232 Exclusion Procedure, a real level playing field has been created in which steel mills in the United States no longer receive preferential treatment for imports. As a result, a US stainless steel mill with a European parent company quickly put its expansion plans in the United States on hold after import loopholes in Section 232 were recently closed.
European Commission only speaks of a level playing field
A stark contrast to the European Commission’s policy of favouritism, which waves through any market protection that domestic steel mills demand while at the same time leaving huge back doors open that allow direct input material to enter the EU unhindered. In addition, the steel mills can also look forward to protection through the CO2 Border Tax CBAM, billions in revenue from the sale of surplus EU ETS certificates and further subsidies from the EU Green Deal and the member states. All at the taxpayer’s expense, of course.
Small and medium-sized companies will suffer the disadvantages
Downstream steel processing companies, the majority of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on the other hand, are being deliberately curtailed in their competitiveness and put at a significant disadvantage. This is because the downstream industry cannot do anything with slabs, but can take the blame for the Commission’s distortions of competition.
The behaviour of the Commission and that of the European steel mills has nothing whatsoever to do with a level playing field. Or what do you think?
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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.
