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EU officials revealed plans to mirror the United States' import duties on steel, effectively doubling taxes on foreign steel to 50% in a decision described as "an existential threat" to the industry in Britain.

Major Challenge for UK Steel Exports

With eighty percent of UK steel shipments destined for the European Union, this policy shift creates the British steel sector's biggest ever crisis, according to the lobby group speaking for the sector.

New EU Proposals and Regulations

Through its proposal submitted to the EU legislature on Tuesday, the EU executive additionally suggested reducing the current allowance for tariff-exempt steel and requiring foreign suppliers to state where the steel was melted and poured to stop China sneaking products in through other countries.

The European steel industry faced potential collapse – we are protecting it so that it can invest, decarbonise, and regain competitiveness.

Replacement of Existing System

The proposals are intended to replace a import framework that has been in operation for the last seven years and which is set to expire in 2026 and is now seen as not fit for purpose. Inaction could have been "catastrophic" for the sector, one EU official said.

Sector Response and Concerns

Nevertheless, industry representatives, head of the industry body British Steel, said EU doubling its tariffs would pose "the biggest crisis the British steel sector has ever faced".

He called on the UK authorities to "acknowledge the urgent need to implement its own measures to protect" the UK steel industry – which is affected by a twenty-five percent tariff from the US recently – from the threat of vast quantities of world steel redirected from US and European markets.

This surge in foreign steel "might prove terminal for numerous steel companies.

Labor and Political Pressure

Union leaders, representative at labor union Community, said the new measures posed "a survival risk" to British steel production.

Unions and industry leaders called on Keir Starmer to begin talks urgently with the European Union on country-specific tariff exemptions, noting that the UK was now the European Union's No 1 export market.

Industry Background

Sector representatives in the EU have also been warning for months that the European steel sector faces being "eliminated" through the new 50% tariffs on American market shipments combined with rising energy prices and cheap Chinese competition.

The steel industry on both sides of the Channel is described as a essential sector, providing basic materials in products ranging from skyscraper structures, wind turbines and railways to dishwashers and kitchenware.

Adoption and Next Steps

The new measures must be agreed by EU nations and the EU legislature, with the EU executive head calling on national governments and European parliament members to move quickly in backing the proposal.

Should approval be granted, the EU will reduce its current duty-free quota by forty-seven percent to 18.3m tonnes a year, a volume previously recorded in 2013. It will apply a fifty percent tariff on imports beyond the quota and oblige nations shipping to the bloc to state where the steel was melted and poured to avoid bypassing of the sanctions.

Exceptions and Global Partnerships

Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein will not be subject to tariff quotas or duties due to their close trading relationship in the EEA, the European Union has said.

In addition to these measures, the EU is pursuing a "steel partnership" with the US to ringfence their respective economies from excess production.

The European Union needs to act now, and decisively, before all lights go out in large parts of the EU steel industry and its value chains.