Trade: EU extends safeguard measures suspension on iron and steel to support war-torn Ukraine’s economy
The Council has adopted today a regulation to extend the suspension of EU safeguard measures on iron and steel, in support of Ukraine’s economy amid Russia’s war of aggression. The aim is to ease the challenges faced by Ukraine’s producers and exporters as a result of the war.
However, the Commission will be able to adopt an implementing act to suspend this regulation for specific products for up to twelve months. The suspension would be decided in case imports of those products from Ukraine increase to a level that significantly harms or threatens to harm to the Union industry producing similar or directly competing products.
Next steps
The regulation will entry into force on 6 June and will apply for three years.
Background
Since 2018, the EU has applied safeguard measures on certain iron and steel imports to protect its producers from global overcapacity.
As part of the Union’s support to Ukraine amid Russia’s illegal war of aggression, Ukraine was exempted from these measures. The Council has today adopted a regulation allowing the extension of this exemption.
Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukraine has had a profound negative impact on Ukraine’s ability to trade with the rest of the world. This has been the case for iron and steel, for example, because of the occupation or destruction of iron and steel production facilities.
In this difficult context, the European Council underlined in its conclusions of 27 October 2023 and 15 December 2023 (as reconfirmed on 19 December 2024) that it will continue to provide strong political and economic support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.
