“CRISIS”: Why does the European Union plan for 50 percent of the customs tariff is to stick to British solid Trade War News

Industry leaders have warned that the European Union’s plan to develop customs tariffs on imported steel, in addition to its annual threshold, could indicate the United Kingdom’s steel industry to the worst crisis in history.

On Tuesday, European Commission Proposal The 27 -member mass will reduce the share of the customs tariffs free of tariffs by 47 percent to 18.3 million tons and will impose a tariff of 50 percent on any imported steel that exceeds this amount.

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This represents a sharp rise: the current annual import share of the European Union is 33 million tons, and the higher imports of this limit are 25 percent tariff.

This declaration has shook the British steel industry, which emit approximately 80 percent of the steel to the European Union.

“This may be the largest crisis that the British steel industry has ever,” said Gareth Staas, general manager of the Lobby Group UK Steel Group on Tuesday. He described this step as a “disaster” of British crucifixion.

Society, a labor union representing steel workers in the United Kingdom, said the European Union’s proposal represents an “existential threat” to the British steel industry.

Here is what we know about the new drawings of the European Union and why the United Kingdom is concerned:

Why did the European Union declare a high tariff for steel imports?

The new tariff is expected to enter into force as of June 2026, as long as the countries of the European Union and the European Parliament are approved.

The European Union says that it has no choice but to bring the new tariff as it seeks to protect its markets from a flood of supported Asian steel, which was converted by the last US President Donald Trump 50 percent tariff On all United States solid imports.

The European Union also wants to protect the steel sector from the challenge of increasing the ability to overly the world.

In a speech written by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, the European Commissioner for Commercial Security and Economic Security, Marus Sivkovic, defended a steel tariff in the mass as a step “to protect the vital sector of the mass”, which “deteriorating the balance of solid trade.”

Sefcovic added that more than 30,000 jobs have been lost since 2018 in the European Union steel industry, which employs about 300,000 people in general.

He said that while this industry stumbles, other countries have begun to impose definitions and other guarantees to ensure their local steel industries expand. Therefore, the committee’s proposal seeks to “restore the balance to the steel market in the European Union.”

More and briefly, a senior European Union official told the Times newspaper: “My dear friends in the United Kingdom, you have to understand that we have no choice but to reduce the total amounts of imports that come to the European Union, so this is the logic that we apply clearly. The behavior cannot lead to deadly effects for us.”

The European Commission’s proposal comes at a time when the steel sector in the bloc faces intense competition from countries such as China, where steel production is supported.

China produced more than a billion metric tons of steel last year, followed by India, in 149 million metric tons and Japan, in 84 million metric tons, according to the World Steel Association, a non -profit organization with a headquarters in Brussels.

In comparison, Sefcovic said that the European Union produces 126 million tons annually, but it requires only 67 percent of this use – “much less than the correct standard by 80 percent and less than profitable levels.”

Moreover, steel production within the European Union has decreased by 65 million tons annually since 2007 – with nearly half of that since 2018.

“The strong strong steel sector is vital to the competitiveness of the European Union, economic security and strategic independence. Excessive excessive destruction of our industry,” said Ursula von der Deir, President of the European Commission.

Stefan Sejorn, the committee’s chairman, told reporters in Strasbourg that “the European steel industry was about to collapse” and said that through the customs tariff plan, the committee “protects it (the steel industry in the European Union) so that it can invest and become competitive again.”

Sejorn added that the committee’s plan “is in line with our values ​​(EU) and international law.”

Why does the UK carry the weight of a steel tariff in the European Union?

The European Union is the largest market in the United Kingdom for a large extent. In 2024, the United Kingdom exported 1.9 million metric tons of steel, at a value of about 3 billion pounds ($ 4.02 billion) and represented 78 percent of homemade steel products to the European Union.

Although the EC steel proposal does not apply to members of the European Economic Zone, that is, Norway and Iceland, it will be applied to the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Ukraine will also be exempted from the tariff share because it faces an “exceptional and immediate security situation,” according to EC.

The European Union says it is open to negotiations with the United Kingdom once it is officially notified of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the new tax. At the present time, however, uncertainty waving.

This is doubled, the UK is also afraid that the cheapest and supported steel from Asia will be overwhelmed by the European Union and the American markets closing its doors.

In a statement, the UK Steel added: “” The capabilities of millions of tons to be prevented from the European Union market, to be directed to the United Kingdom, are another existential threat. “

Nikolai von Ondarza, a co -fellow in Chatham House, the London Politics Institute, told the island that the cheap steel that turns the planned definitions of the European Union will mostly come from countries like China, “to exert additional pressure on its manufacture.”

The British steel sector also carries a 25 percent Trump tariff for British steel imports, a global supply mandate, and high energy prices, and has been exposed to job losses in some of the largest steel work due to green transition initiatives.

Can the United Kingdom negotiate its way out of this?

This is currently her best hope, according to industry leaders.

He added: “We urge the United Kingdom and the European Union to start urgent negotiations and do everything possible to prevent the overwhelming impact of these proposals on our steel industry.”

“For the United Kingdom, the first way is to try to negotiate these European Union drilling drilling. Both European Commission and UK have already indicated its willingness to talk. These negotiations are likely to be difficult, but it is unlikely to reach an agreement.”

On his way for a two -day business trip to India, UK Prime Minister Kiir told the correspondents that his country was “in discussions with the European Union” about the proposal.

“I will be able to tell you more in time, but we are in discussions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chris McDonald, UK Minister of Industry, suggested that retaliatory measures may not be completely out of the table.

“We continue to explore stronger commercial measures to protect British steel producers from unfair behaviors,” he told reporters.

If the United States causes it, can it help solve it?

While the European Union’s tariff proposal led to a protest in the United Kingdom, it is also a measure that seeks to bring the United States to the negotiating table, says EC.

In August, the European Union and the United States approved a trade agreement whereby Washington will impose tariff fees of 15 percent on 70 percent of Europe’s exports to the country. Brussels and Washington have not been discussed after how to apply a customs tariff to European steel, which still faces a 50 percent tariff under the new Trump trade system.

Sivkovic told reporters that the committee’s solid definition proposal would be a good basis for interacting with the United States and also fighting the challenge of excessive ability to be “similar partners in thinking.”