Replacement of steel protective elements as amended by the EU Committee
Last week, the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) published a report illustrating its amendments to the EU's long-term measures to replace steel protective equipment, which proposes various changes in the force and scope of the regulation.
Speaker Karin Carlsbro published a report on February 3 detailing the amendments adopted by the committee at its last meeting on January 27 by a majority of 36 votes to 2, with 5 abstentions. The report was also prepared on the basis of materials provided by the Committee of Industry, Research and Energy.
The proposed amendments significantly strengthen the Commission's obligations to monitor and analyze the effects of regulation, especially for steel-consuming industries, as well as limit the Commission's authority to negotiate tariff compensation and expand the scope of melting and casting requirements.
INTA amendments are not final and must be approved or supplemented by the European Commission and the Council as the regulatory proposal passes through the usual EU legislative procedure.
Processing industries
The processing industries suffer from many of the same problems as the EU's primary steel sector – high production costs and lack of competition from substitute imports – but remain relatively unprotected in terms of direct trade protection. Both domestic sales companies and steel-consuming industries have warned that steel price inflation as a result of increased (or unbalanced) protectionism could lead to serious pressure, especially when demand for domestic processed products is generally declining.
Thus, the International Trade Committee has made a number of amendments to monitor this pressure, including a direct reference to domestic steel prices, on a more frequent and accelerated basis, requiring an initial review after 6 months, proposals to regulate a possible expansion of the scope during the year, subsequent reviews conducted every two years, and a review of The entire steel value chain is up for stakeholders to evaluate.
Quota management
Ultimately, INTA did not recommend restoring the quota transfer mechanism, which transfers unused quota volumes to the next quarter, but amended the wording of the regulations, or contextual provisions, to include provisions regarding "import concentration by several operators and inventory accumulation practices," as defined by INTA, which means delaying imports for free release. treatment in order to ensure an unfair