On January 4, 2018, the EU notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it intends to impose definitive safeguard measures on a wide variety of imported steel products. These measures will replace provisional safeguard measures that have covered steel imports into the EU since July 2018. The measures will take the form of a tariff-rate quota, which involves the imposition of an additional duty of 25 percent on imports above specified quota levels for the countries covered by the measures. The measures go into effect before February 4, 2019 and remain in effect until July 16, 2021.

The EU imposed the measures on 26 categories of steel products. The products covered by the measures include alloy and non-alloy hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheet and strip, non-grain-oriented electrical sheet, metallic coated sheet, organic coated sheet, tin mill products, non-alloy and other alloy plate products, stainless steel sheet and strip, stainless steel hot-rolled plate products, as well as a variety of other alloy, non-allow and stainless steel bar, wire rod, wire, pipe and tube, rail and other steel products.

The measures will apply to imports from all countries, including the United States, except for Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and a number of developing countries. Certain developing countries, such as Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, are specifically covered by the measures.

The EU launched the investigation in response to the United States’ decision to impose tariffs on steel products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. In its determination, the EU concluded that its steel industry had “not yet fully recovered from the global steel crisis,” a situation which was “aggravated” by trade diversions resulting from the U.S. measures under Section 232.

As a result of the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, several Democratic Congressmen are pursuing the influential post of Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. According to press reports, Representatives Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Ron Kind (D-WI) are all currently hoping to be selected for the position. Several influential labor unions are said to have quietly thrown their support behind Rep. Pascrell. The Trade Subcommittee will play a critical role in several critical trade issues now facing the new Congress, including the approval of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) and oversight of critical aspects of the Trump Administration’s trade policy agenda, including the Administration’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum under Section 232 and its imposition of tariffs on tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports under Section 301.