EU proposes steel industry protections, rattling UK manufacturers
[October 08, 2025] By
SAM McNEIL and JILL LAWLESS
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Tuesday proposed cutting by almost
half its tariff-free quota on steel and steel products, effectively
adding large tariffs on imports from countries including China, India,
Turkey and the United Kingdom, which said the measures would wreck the
British steel industry. After reaching a new quota of 18.3 million tons
of imports, additional imports will face a 50% tariff. This is double
the current 25% rate — a high price akin to U.S. President Donald
Trump's steel measures. Neighboring nations such as Norway, Iceland and
Ukraine will be exempt.
A proposal to thwart overcapacity
The proposal attempts to buttress Europe's traditional steel
manufacturers by imposing trade barriers so that Europe's markets don't
become flooded with imports diverted by high American tariffs imposed
earlier this year.
Steel importers would be required to clearly declare where the products
were melted and poured, and a complex quota system would govern what
enters the EU common market. The proposal replaces a current steel
safeguard policy aligned with the World Trade Organization that is set
to expire in June 2026.
“A strong, decarbonized steel sector is vital for the European Union’s
competitiveness, economic security and strategic autonomy. Global
overcapacity is damaging our industry," said European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Parliament and the European Council must now ratify or
amend the proposal, which then might require negotiations with the WTO
to check how member countries are affected by the measures.
The EU exported 77 billion euros ($89.7 billion) and imported 73.1
billion euros ($85.2 billion) worth of steel in 2024, according to the
EU's statistics agency Eurostat.
The European Steel Association estimates that growing global steel
overcapacity is at around 602 million tonnes, or four times the EU's
total annual steel consumption.
Judith Kirton-Darling, general secretary for the trade union bloc
IndustriAll's Europe office, said in September during the Emergency
Steel Social that, “steel is the backbone of Europe’s economy, yet the
sector is now at breaking point. That is why trade unionists from every
corner of Europe have joined steelmakers at this summit to call for
urgent action.”
Stéphane Séjourné, the European Commission's executive vice president
for industrial strategy, said the proposal would protect Europe's
industrial future. "This is the new safeguard clause on steel. This is
the reindustrialization of Europe,” he said in a post on X.
Britain's steel sector rattled
Trade body UK Steel said the proposed drop in the tariff-free quota
would spell disaster for the embattled British steel industry. It said
more than three-quarters of British steel exports go to the EU.
“This is perhaps the biggest crisis the U.K. steel industry has ever
faced,” said UK Steel Director-General Gareth Stace. He said the British
government “must go all out to leverage our trading relationship with
the European Union to secure U.K. country quotas or potentially face
disaster.”
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A man works at MAP, a factory operating in design, manufacture and
installation of steel structures for civil and industrial use, in
Corsico, near Milan, Italy, Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP
Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)
 Stace said the EU move also risked
“redirecting millions of tonnes of steel towards the U.K.” from
countries hit by the tariffs, which “could be terminal for many of
our remaining steel companies.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. is “in discussions with
the EU" about the proposal.
"I'll be able to tell you more in due course but we are in
discussions, as you’d expect,” he said.
Britain’s once-mighty steel industry has shrunk dramatically from
its 1970s peak and now accounts for 0.1% of the economy. Thousands
of jobs are due to be lost at the country’s biggest steelworks, at
Port Talbot in Wales, as owner Tata Steel tries to make the
unprofitable plant leaner and greener.
Community, a trade union that represents many steelworkers, said the
EU’s proposal was “an existential threat to our steel industry.”
“Global overcapacity is a shared challenge and it is in both the UK
and the EU’s interests to work together to find a solution,” said
the union's Assistant General Secretary Alasdair McDiarmid.
“A trade war, at what is already a turbulent time for the global
steel industry, would be incredibly damaging for everyone involved,
with workers in the U.K. and Europe paying the heaviest price.”
Steel, an important European sector
Steel manufacturers employ about 300,000 people across 20 of the
bloc's 27 nations. But it has been hard-hit over the past two
decades, losing perhaps a quarter of its employees, according to
Eurostat. Steel is a foundational industry in the EU. The bloc
evolved out of the 1951 European Steel and Coal Community, a common
market between Luxembourg, Italy, France, the Netherlands, West
Germany and Belgium.
The United States and the EU have a tenuous trade agreement that has
yet to include specific measures for products like whisky, wine and
steel. But American and European negotiators have said that they are
working on a “ring-fencing” or coordinating steel tariffs to secure
supply chains between the two economic juggernauts.
EU trade representative Maroš Šefčovič said the steel tariffs and
quotas would be discussed on Friday in South Africa during a meeting
of trade ministers from the Group of 20 countries. — Lawless
reported from London.
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