Reported by Luke 2020-2-24

On 14^th February, 2020, the commission announced that decision to the European Union initiated the second review steel products safeguard case investigation.The main content of the review includes: (1) the steel varieties of quota quantity and allocation;(2) whether the traditional trade squeezes; (3) whether signing bilateral preferential trade agreements with the EU countries will be adversely affected by security measures;(4) whether imports from developing countries enjoying the treatment of “WTO” will continue to be exempted;(5) other changes in circumstances that may lead to changes in the quota and apportionment.The stakes may submit written opinions within 15 days after the case.This case involves the EU CN (CommonNomenclature) codes 72081000, 72091500, 72091610, 72102000, 72107080, 72091899, 72085120, 72191100, 72193100, 72143000, 72142000, 72131000, 72163110, 73011000, 73063041, 73066110, 73041100 , 73045112, 73051100, 73061110 and 72171010.

On 26^th March, 2008, the European commission launched a safeguard investigation on imported steel products. On 18^th July 2018, the European commission made a preliminary ruling on the case. On 4 January 2019, the world trade organization (WTO) safeguard committee issued the final notification of safeguard measures submitted by the EU delegation on 2^nd January 2019, and decided to impose a safeguard tax of 25% on steel products imported beyond the quota by 4^th February 2019. The European commission conducted its first review of the safeguards case on 17^th May 2019 and made its final ruling on the case on 26^th September 2019.