UK adjusts EU import quotas after agreement is reached
According to Kallanish, an agreement on tariff quotas (TRQS) for imported steel was concluded between the UK and the European Union a few days before they were put into effect.
The deal was announced after the Ministry of Business and Trade published the final tariff data. This will result in an overall reduction of quotas by 51% compared to the originally proposed 60%, while the non-tariff rate will increase to 50%. As part of the changes, 11 product codes were removed and two were added in accordance with industry feedback.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Metallurgy, said: "Some of the changes reflect the fact that the European Union remains our largest steel export market and we have very interconnected supply chains. … As a result of these discussions, we have achieved a mutually beneficial result with the EU."
Thus, the UK will increase the EU import quota from the announced 1.58 million tons to 2.08 million tons. The European Union will announce its own quotas next Monday, he added.
"This will ensure the stability of steel trade between the UK and the EU from July 1, while we continue to work together to strengthen steel trade between the UK and the EU in the long term," Bryant said.
"This measure should work not only for our steel producers, but also, of course, for our producers who depend on steel, those who supply it from the UK, and those who supply it from abroad. Our goal is solely to protect the categories of steel that we produce in the UK, so we deliberately excluded many categories from this measure," he added.
According to Bryant, almost three quarters of UK steel imports in value terms and 53% in physical terms are not covered by this measure. "The total volume of quotas will now amount to 3.2 million tons. This is more than 560,000 tons of steel that can be imported duty-free, compared to the preliminary volumes that we announced. A significant increase of 21%," he said.
"We know that businesses will sometimes need to find specialized steel that we simply cannot purchase here in the UK. In these cases, quotas have been designed to allow imports and ensure continued availability to UK businesses without additional unnecessary costs; to ensure continuity in supply chains for businesses, we are also introducing a transitional agreement."
Concerns were raised that some of the products included in the quotas are those that "could" be produced domestically, but which are currently not being produced.
In category 1 preliminary