The EU responds to Trump with a plan to reduce steel imports.

BrusselsThe European Union continues to protect itself from the potential consequences of the trade war started by Donald TrumpThe European Commission announced this Wednesday that it will strengthen and make permanent the safeguards, which are currently temporary, to protect the European steel sector, which could be adversely affected by the general rise in tariffs on this material from the United States. Furthermore, as announced by the European Commissioner for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, the European Commission is considering extending this type of special protection to the aluminum sector.

The objective of the European executive is to prevent major steel exporters in the United States, such as China, from now choosing to flood the European market and, therefore, end up harming European industry. "It is not reasonable for the EU to assume the worldwide structural excess capacity and its negative impact on the steel industry," states the plan presented this Wednesday by the European Commission.

In fact, Brussels already took this measure for the first time during the New York magnate's first term, when it increased import tariffs across the board. Now, however, the European Commission wants to extend them, as they were set to expire in July of next year, and make them permanent to protect itself in the long term, both from Trump and from strong Chinese competition.

Specifically, Brussels plans to increase the number of quotas on steel product imports so that they do not exceed certain quantities, and when they do, tariffs will be applied. In this way, the Community executive estimates that it could reduce current steel imports into the European Union by up to 15%.

With all this, the European Commission plans to promote the rearmament plan presented this Wednesday and which European leaders will discuss this Thursday at the summit being held in Brussels. This roadmap, in addition to reaffirming the commitment to Ukraine and financing military spending at breakneck speed, aims to ensure that arms purchases are made primarily from European companies and, in this way, boost the European arms industry, which is essential in the steel sector.

Affordable Energy

The steel industry is a significant energy consumer, and the European bloc is currently one of the regions with the highest energy prices in the world. Therefore, one of the main points of the EU plan to revive the sector at the European level is to ensure that it has access to more affordable energy. In this regard, Brussels aims to promote joint energy purchasing across the EU to achieve better prices and, among other things, encourages Member States to take advantage of the tax flexibility they have when it comes to taxing electricity bills.

In addition, the European Commission has announced various measures to decarbonize the sector. The Commissioner for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy announced that he will introduce "sustainability" criteria for European products in public procurement and will invest 150 million euros in the search for alternatives to energy generated with fossil fuels.