European Commission imposes anti-dumping duties on Chinese steel products

The Commission today decided to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled flat steel and heavy plates of steel from China. In a swift reaction to unfair competition, the measures come almost five weeks ahead of the procedural deadline, and in the case of hot-rolled steel, the imposition of duties results from an investigation initiated even before the dumping-related damage could materialise. As for the heavy plates, imports are subject to registration since August and duties can be applied retroactively at the definitive stage.The Commission’s investigations confirmed that the Chinese products had been sold in Europe at heavily dumped prices. The EU currently has an unprecedented number of trade defence measures in place targeting unfair imports of steel products, with a total of 37 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, 15 of which are on products originating from China. The Commission has been using the available toolbox of trade defence instruments to the full extent possible, but it’s necessary to strengthen these mechanisms to bring them up to the reality of the current state of globalisation. The Commission reiterates the call for Member States’ support for the 2013 proposal on the modernisation of the EU’s trade defence instruments, notably on the lesser duty rule. This would allow the EU to impose higher duties on dumped products.