The UK's protective measures against steel imports have been tightened compared to previous proposals made by the country's Trade Regulatory Authority (TRA), following the intervention of the Secretary of State.
According to the new rules, which will come into force tomorrow (July 1), 15% restrictions will be applied to the use by individual countries of quarterly import quotas of category 4 (metal-coated sheet), category 7 (sheets of non-alloy and other alloys) and category 13 (rebar). The UK Department of Commerce has recommended setting 40 percent limits for each of these categories.
Secretary of State Jonathan Reynolds also decided to reduce tariff quotas for each of the 14 categories of goods in the UK. It was supposed to be liberalized from July 1 to 0.1% (instead of 3%).
As part of the further tightening of the country's protective measures, the UK government said in a statement released today that this would lead to:
- Prevent the provision of any unused quarterly quotas in the next quarter
- To exclude WTO members with a quota for a specific country from the remaining quota in the last quarter of the protection year (from April 1 to June 30, 2026).
- Update the exceptions for "developing countries" based on UK import data for the period from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 and in accordance with the WTO Safeguards Agreement.
John Carruthers-Green, member of the European Parliament and steel market analyst, said: "Domestic steel producers will take today's announcement as a clear signal of government support for the UK steel industry. However, these measures go beyond the initial recommendations, in particular, the introduction of a 15% cap on tariff quotas at the country level for metal-coated sheets, hot-rolled products and rebars.
"Importers are likely to be disappointed, especially given that marginal prices are lower than expected, and this applies to goods whose production in the UK is limited. In the case of coated metal sheet and hot-rolled plates, domestic production relies on advanced imported raw materials, making the cap particularly severe restrictions for British consumers and processors."
In announcing its decision, the UK government stated that tightening steel imports into protective measures is necessary to ensure their effectiveness for domestic producers, while taking into account the need to ensure security of supply for the British market, in line with traditional trade flows.
UK steel CEO Gareth Stace, said the Secretary of State is
