
The United States and the European Union announced on 31 October 2021 that they would replace the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminium with a tariff-rate quota system from 1 January 2022. The deal, struck at the G20 summit in Rome, ended a three-year dispute that began when Washington imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminium in 2018. Under the arrangement, 3.3 million tonnes of EU steel a year can enter the United States duty-free, allocated by member state on the basis of 2015-2017 trade, with volumes above the quota still subject to the 25 percent tariff. Steel must be melted and poured in the EU to qualify. In return, the EU cancelled a planned increase in retaliatory tariffs due on 1 December and agreed to drop its World Trade Organization cases. The two sides also agreed to negotiate a global arrangement on carbon-intensive steel and aluminium. US manufacturers welcomed cheaper European steel, while American steelmakers said the quota protected them from a flood of imports.
Source: Mayer Brown — https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2021/11/us-eu-reach-deal-to-ease-us-tariffs-on-steel-and-aluminum-from-the-eu
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed).
