EU to review aluminium duty cut by 2010, may broaden measure

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- The European Commission remains committed to reviewing its decision, taken earlier this year, to cut the duty on imports of unalloyed aluminium in the European Union within three years of the measure taking effect, at which point it could conceivably look at broadening the terms of the move, an EC official said Monday. Speaking at the Metal Bulletin Aluminium Conference in Dubai, Roelof Plijter, advisor to the director of the EC's DG Trade G2 division, noted that the move in March of this year, to cut the duty from 6% to 3% -- a compromise move following the original proposal to cut it to zero -- committed the EC to look at the situation again within three years. "We will do our duty in that respect," he added. Furthermore, he added, "it could be foreseen that either [the EC] would revive the proposal to reduce the duty to zero and/or broaden it to include alloyed aluminium as well." Such a move would have more chance of success if either the Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks and/or the free trade negotiations between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council have been successfully concluded in the interim, Plijter suggested. Europe currently produces around two-thirds of the 11 million mt/year of aluminium it consumes, importing around 3.5 million mt/year, split 50:50 between primary and secondary material, he said. And EU consumers are set to remain reliant on imports in the years to come. "It seems that new production capacity in Europe is not to be envisaged," Plijter said, citing in particular high energy costs. The European Union continues to favor an open trading regime, he said, arguing that trade flows of raw materials were being disrupted by government measures such as export duties on scrap from Russia and Ukraine and the Chinese government's use of import and export tariff moves to attract raw materials supplies while deterring the export of certain energy-intensive products. The Chinese measures amount to "manipulation by the government to attract raw materials and to avoid the export of high energy consuming mill products," he said, adding that the EC was in constant contact with the Chinese authorities in a bid to improve the situation. "In principle, the best long-term solution to short supply and high prices [of raw materials] is to lift restrictions in trade and level the playing field," he said.