The EU steel industry, already reeling from Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on imports, is bracing itself for further damage after the US opened the possibility of a rolling list of “derivative” products that could be subject to tariffs including windows and doors with some metal.
In August the US listed 407 product categories as “derivative” inclusions, ranging from wind turbines, mobile cranes and bulldozers to rail cars and furniture.
But EU business leaders and a leading German MEP have raised concerns that the list will continue to grow ad hoc, adding further uncertainty and costs to an industry already rocked by the punitive tariffs, designed to stop Chinese imports, but affecting producers across Europe including the UK where a 25% tariff applies.
The US opened a new consultation on what products should be on the inclusions list on 15 September, with a deadline of 29 September.
The EU steel industry said the consultation was clearly “to expand, not to cut” the list of products and was part of a wider intention to review the list three times a year.
Luisa Santos, the deputy director general at BusinessEurope, the confederation of European industry organisations, said the relationship with the US was “becoming quite turbulent” because of the US ability to add products to tariff buckets.
“The problem now is that the US is making a strange interpretation of the deals, increasing the list of derivatives. It is not just with us, it is with everyone.
“It could be a motorbike that is now hit, or a table with a small bit of metal on it or window frames.
“The issue is if we still have a number of things that are not clear, if you have one side expanding through these lists of derivatives, it is very difficult to claim we have certainty.”
The UK government, which secured its lower steel tariff before a deal with the EU, has said it is seeking clarification from Washington about what extra steel products will be affected.
Fearing another wave of redundancies in a sector already hit by overcapacity and cheap foreign imports, the Community trade union and British Steel said they wanted the UK’s industrial sector to sign a pledge backing the country’s steel sector.
“With the industry facing unprecedented challenges, the pledge seeks to galvanise support for UK-made steel and reinforce the long-term resilience of the sector, its workforce, and the infrastructure it sustains,” the two organisations said.
Eurofer, the European steel trade representative body, said: “The latest developments make even more evident the need for a strong new trade measure to preserve not only the viability of the EU steel sector but EU manufacturing as a whole, and the millions of quality jobs they sustain in Europe.”
Steel tariffs went up from a punitive 25% to 50% in June. It was part of Trump’s attempt to revive the US industry but also to ringfence it not just against Chinese imports but also products that include steel, be they stainless steel sinks, kettles or cranes.
The derivative list was already “really harming a lot of industries” including the motorcycles sector, said the chair of the influential international trade committee at the European parliament, Bernd Lange, a German MEP.
He told how he recently visited a motorcycle factory in Germany, where he learned the owners were unable to produce a definitive paper trail for the quantity of steel and aluminium used in their vehicles, right down to nuts and bolts that could have an element of Chinese steel in them.
Under the rules the tariffs are payable on the value of their steel and aluminium content.
“They know they are between 30% and 50% but because they are unsure, they declare 50% because otherwise they are in danger of getting tariffs of 200%,” he said in reference to customs penalties for non-declaration of all goods subject to duties.
He told MEPs that the new tariff regime and the prospect of the inclusions of products expanding meant it was not easy to “explain to the workers” that the EU -US deal was a good one.
