Steel exporters warned of the risk of exceeding export quotas to Europe

The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has issued warnings to steel exporters to European countries.

Vietnamese steel exporters have been warned of the risk of exceeding the export quotas to Europe.
Vietnamese steel exporters have been warned of the risk of exceeding the export quotas to Europe.

Accordingly, the European Commission (EC) has decided to initiate investigations on the application of safeguarding measures on 28 groups of imported steel products, of which 23 are subject to tariff quotas.

Three out of the 23 groups of Vietnamese products subjected to tariff quotas include cold-rolled and non-alloy steel, galvanised steel sheet and cold-rolled stainless steel sheet and bars.

For the other 20 steel product groups from Vietnam, the EU has temporarily excluded them from the quotas application range and they will not be subjected to the 25% tariff in excess of quota.

However, if during the application period of provisional safeguard measures, the importation of these products from Vietnam in excess of 3% would face the risk of being excluded when the EC applies official safeguard measures after February 3, 2019.

The Vietnamese agency will publish monthly export data to the EU in order to alert the possibility of exports exceeding the 3% threshold and the risk of being subject to formal safeguards by the EC.