United States, European Union Continue Work On Steel Agreement

According to news reports, the U.S. government and the European Union (EU) are continuing to work on an agreement that would impose new tariffs on steel products from China and other countries. While limited information is available at this point, unnamed sources told Bloomberg the new penalties would primarily target imports from China that benefit from non-market practices.

The scope of the measures and what other countries could be affected are still being worked out, but the agreement would be part of the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum that the EU and the Biden administration have been negotiating since 2021.

The overarching goal of the Global Arrangement is to erect trade barriers in both the United States and EU against imports from steel plants with high-carbon emissions and from countries that have been producing far more steel than market demand warrants. (Click here to read a previous Connecting the Dots story about this agreement.)

Reuters said negotiators from the United States and EU have run into some sticking points during their Global Arrangement discussions, however. “EU sources said the two sides have yet to agree on how to define ‘green steel,’” for example, “and expressed concern that U.S. proposals could flout global trade rules by discriminating against third-party countries and possibly setting quantitative restrictions on imports.”

The Office of the United States Trade Representative declined to comment on either the Bloomberg or Reuters report.