According to Gerber on September 10, 2024, the EU steel lobbying group filed a lawsuit against the anti-circumvention investigation results against stainless steel from Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Turkey. Draghi’s report on EU competitiveness called for reducing red tape and abandoning the wanton use of punitive tariffs.
EU steel lobbying group on market protection measures
Draghi filed a lawsuit, and the report on EU competitiveness called for reducing red tape.
Mario Draghi’s much-anticipated report “The Future of European Competitiveness” is very long and comprehensive, about 400 pages. However, it has exposed some contradictions. For example, in the case of European steel production, on the one hand, Draghi praised the traditionally high-quality steel grades of European steel production, but at the same time made an indiscriminate comparison of all steel grades, comparing the production costs of hot-rolled coils in the EU, the United States, China and India (surprisingly: China steel is not the cheapest).
Steel Products
The wanton use of punitive tariffs should be stopped
But on the positive side, the report criticizes Europe’s wanton use of punitive tariffs and market protection measures. The report also recommends relaxing such protection measures, as such protectionism disproportionately leads to increased costs.
This brings us back to the example of steel. European manufacturers are good at producing high-quality steel, but fell behind in the competition for pure commodity steel many years ago. Here, the Draghi Report also calls for not protecting these industries (such as EU steel manufacturers) at all costs with taxpayers’ money. Instead, there should be more competition here, which will eventually contribute to a major revitalization of the EU internal market.
CBAM is a market defense measure
At the same time, Part B of the Draghi Report also once again clarified the full content of the EU carbon border tax CBAM:
“The European Green Deal includes financial support (such as through NextGenerationEU) and market defense measures (such as CBAM) to support this transition.”
Therefore, the European Commission’s claim that CBAM is an environmental protection measure should be fully exposed as a political lie.
EU is mired in censorship
Since Ursula von der Leyen assumed the presidency of the European Commission in 2019, the EU has passed more than 13,000 pieces of legislation that shackle the European economy.
The urgent call for a reduction in censorship in the European Competitiveness Report is therefore entirely justified and urgently needed. By comparison, the United States has passed less than half as many laws during this period.
In Conclusion:
EUROFER, the lobbying group for EU steel producers, has filed a complaint with the European Commission in July 2024 against the results of two anti-circumvention investigations into cold-rolled stainless steel sheets originating in Indonesia, which were carried out on imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Turkey. These results have now been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Case T-390/24 – Case T-391/24
EUROFER’s two complaints focus on the Commission’s findings on Taiwan and its stainless steel producers exempted from the measure.
The anti-circumvention procedure has already sparked massive protests in the past due to serious procedural errors and unfounded allegations by EU stainless steel producers. EUROFER’s complaint suggests that manufacturers have not fully achieved their objectives and are now trying to cause further damage to the domestic market.
