The European Union is planning to extend its three-year safeguard into imports of steel for another three years, in a move that is unprecedented in the EU’s trade defence history.
Safeguards
EU considers extending its global steel safeguard
The European Union is considering extending its safeguard measures on steel imports beyond the three years mandated by its regulation. The European Commission said it was acting following “a duly substantiated request received from twelve EU member states” – and is now consulting stakeholders. The safeguards were introduced in July …
Turkey requests WTO panel in dispute with EU over steel safeguard
Turkey has decided to litigate. Earlier this year, Ankara requested consultations with the European Union as Brussels revised for the second time a contentious safeguard on steel imports introduced initially in 2018. The measures were taken in response to the United States’ decision back then to restrict imports of steel …
Second revision of EU steel safeguard leaves much unclear on modalities
“We will continue to use our trade defence instruments in a robust fashion to ensure that our economic recovery takes place in a level playing field,” said Sabine Weyand in a recent meeting with MEPs last week. Discussing the revised EU steel safeguard, which is coming into force tomorrow, Weyand …
EU steel safeguard: Quota volumes reduced, new countries targeted
The European Union is revising for the second time a steel safeguard it applies to 26 product categories since February 2019. Differentiated approach to quota volumes In an approach that raises interesting World Trade Organization compatibility questions, the EU is not announcing an expansion. In fact the EU is reducing …
TDI series: Rice – The EU’s first ‘poorest country’ import safeguard
This article is the first in a series of pieces Borderlex is planning to publish over the autumn 2019 to take stock of the European Union’s trade defence instrument policy at a critical turning point both in the multilateral trading system and in the EU’s trade defence practices. Since 2014, …
More WTO members announce retaliation against EU steel safeguards
The European Union introduced a safeguard against imports of steel last January. The move was made in response to the United States import restrictions on steel under Section 232 in 2018 and aims to avoid the European market from being flooded by metal diverted away from North America. But Brussels’ …
EU and Argentina bury hatchet over biodiesel duties
The EU and Argentina ended six years of disagreements over the South American country’s exports of biodiesel to the bloc with a compromise that averts years of litigation in courts.
Member states greenlight steel safeguards, rice safeguards to proceed
European Union quotas on imports of 26 steel product categories that have been in place provisionally since July will become definitive after member states gave the green light to the move today in Brussels. The European Commission also decided to go ahead with imposing safeguards on Indica rice from Cambodia …
Will commission break limbo on Myanmar and Cambodia rice safeguards?
EU governments are split in the face of proposals by the European Commission to reapply import protections on rice from Cambodia and Myanmar following an import surge from these countries. The two Asian countries, which qualify as least-developed countries, benefit from duty-free imports of rice under the EU’s General System …
