PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s ailing steel sector needs to be protected and safeguard measures on steel imports must be strengthened as current safeguards are too low and not adapted to the current market, French industry minister Marc Ferracci said on Thursday.
“The European industry and the steel sector need protection, which in the short term means beefing up safeguard measures,” said Ferracci, at a European steel industry event in Paris.
Stressing that the European steel industry was in a “difficult situation” in the face of heavily subsidised imports from China and looming U.S. tariffs, he said: “If we do not take strong measures, plants will close down.”
The European Commission is investigating whether to tighten its current system of quotas on steel imports to protect EU producers from new tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose on incoming steel and aluminium on March 12.
Ferracci said EU safeguard measures put in place in 2016 and which are due to end in 2026 were no longer adapted to the reality of the European steel market in terms of volume as well as regarding tariffs levels.
Ferracci also said Europe needed to respond firmly but proportionately to Trump’s latest tariffs threats, which he described as “worrying but not surprising.”
Trump said on Wednesday his administration would soon announce a 25% tariff on imports from the EU.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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