The European Union may prolong 11- year-old tariffs on steel ropes and cables from China, South Africa and Ukraine to curb import competition for EU manufacturers including ArcelorMittal.
The EU began a review of whether to re-impose the import duties as high as 60.4 percent for another five years while letting a similar levy against India expire. The rates are 60.4 percent for China, 30.8 percent for India, 38.6 percent for South Africa and 51.8 percent for Ukraine.
The bloc imposed the taxes in 1999 to punish exporters in the four countries for selling steel ropes and cables in Europe below cost, a practice known as dumping. The EU renewed the levies for five years in November 2005, citing threats to a French unit of ArcelorMittal as well as German, Spanish and Portuguese producers.
The review will determine whether the expiry of the duties against China, South Africa and Ukraine “would be likely, or unlikely, to lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury,” the European Commission, the EU’s trade authority in Brussels, said on Nov. 13 in the Official Journal. The measures were due to lapse this week along with the levy against India and will now stay in place during the probe, which can last as long as 15 months.
Six months ago, the 27-nation EU extended to South Korea the 60.4 percent tariff applied to China after concluding that Chinese exporters shipped the goods via Korea to evade the levy. Since 2004, the EU has also applied to Morocco the duty against China and to Moldova the 51.8 percent levy against Ukraine after finding evidence of circumvention.
In 2007, the EU withdrew an exemption for Scaw Metals Group’s Haggie unit from the 38.6 percent anti-dumping duty against South Africa after saying the business breached a pledge to sell above minimum prices and prove compliance through quarterly reports on exports.
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