EU extends the application of tariff quotas for 8 groups of Vietnamese steel products
Steel NewsDate: 16-06-2023 by: Ngoc Cam
On June 2, 2023, the Safeguards Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced that the European Union would continue to extend safeguard measures in the form of tariff quotas (TRQs) for some steel products imported from Vietnam for an additional year. The EU decision is in effect from July 1, 2023, to the end of June 2024.
According to the notice of the WTO, the European Union accused cheap steel products imported from abroad will continue to cause severe damage to domestic producers. Therefore, they asked to apply trade remedies because the EU's domestic steel industry has taken many measures to deal with the increase in imported steel products into the domestic market.
Based on the Commission's Implementation Regulation 2021/10291, the EU issued a Decision to extend safeguard measures applied to imported steel products through tariff quotas. Accordingly, the European Commission allocates specific and common quotas for each country for the remaining countries. Imports over the percentage are subject to an additional 25% duty.
Vietnam, along with other countries, has exported steel to the EU market subject to quarterly tariff quotas for eight types of steel, including hot rolled steel plate (group 1), electrical engineering steel plate (group 3B), galvanized steel plate (group 4A, 4B), organic coated steel plate (group 5), stainless cold-rolled steel plate (group 9), large steel pipes (group 25B) and other steel pipes (group 26). For other groups of steel products, Vietnam is exempted from safeguard measures according to the criterion that a developing country with a steel import market share of less than 3%.
The European Union is one of the regions that regularly applies trade remedies to imported goods globally. According to WTO statistics, by the end of June 2022, the EU had investigated 644 cases and applied 408 trade remedies. Currently, the EU only uses safeguard measures related to steel products for Vietnam. In the next stage, Vietnamese manufacturers need to contact EU and Vietnamese authorities to fulfill their obligations to declare, cooperate and provide sufficient information to protect their rights tariff rate, not allowing steel products outside the above eight groups to be determined to exceed 3% of the market share.
Previously, on March 26, 2017, the European Union launched an investigation into some imported steel products. On July 18, 2018, the EU decided to apply a temporary safeguard measure on steel products classified under 23 product categories within 200 days. The out-of-quota tariff rate is 25%, depending on product type and origin.
On July 1, 2020, the non-taxable quota was increased by 5%, effective until June 30, 2021. With the expiry of the term three years, the EU relaxed this measure by increasing the tariff rate quotas for all groups to 4% from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023.
On February 2, 2019, the European Commission imposed official safeguard measures on 26 out of 28 product categories under investigation. Before exporting to the EU, the Vietnam Trade Remedies Administration suggested that enterprises actively control the export shipments within the remaining quota.
If customers want to learn about the Vietnam steel market and import genuine steel products, please get in touch with MRS Steel via Whatsapp: +84 76 911 2358 for the best support.
Write a comment