Global News Of Note: EU Extending Steel Safeguards

What happens abroad impacts MSCI members in North America. Here is the latest economic, trade, and other policy news of note for the last week:

• The European Commission has extended its safeguard measures on 26 items of steel products until June 30, 2024. The EU put these measures into place in 2019 in response to the United States’ Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products. The commission said if measures were to be terminated, the surge in imports would most likely damage the European economic recovery. For each of the 26 products, any quantity exceeding that product’s respective quota will be subject to a 25 percent tariff. The annual quota liberalization rate will stay at four percent. Click here to read the commission’s initial announcement regarding these tariffs from 2019.
• According to Reuters, China’s imports of iron ore increased 3.95 percent — from 92.52 million tons to 96.18 million tons — between May 2022 and May 2023. The country’s daily hot metal output averaged 2.4 million tons in May, a figure that was up by 0.6 percent from May 2022. Additionally, China’s exports of steel products rose 7.7 percent year-over-year to 8.36 million tons to hit the highest level since September 2016. Read more here.
• Overall, Chinese exports fell 7.5 percent year-over-year to hit $284 billion in May 2023. Bloomberg reported exports to the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia, France, and Italy fell by double digits. Imports into also fell, dropping by 4.5 percent.