EEU sets quota for hot rolled flats imports

The Eurasian Economic Union’s (EEU) department for internal market defence has finalised its proposal to implement import quotas on various hot rolled flat products. This comes one year after it started a safeguard investigation.

An import quota of 1.33 million tonnes will be enforced for one year starting on 1 December, with imports beyond the quota subject to a 20% import duty. Imports arriving prior to December will be subject to an import procedure determined by the commission, it says in a note seen by Kallanish.

The investigation was initiated after Russian steelmakers MMK, NLMK and Severstal petitioned citing rising import volumes into the EEU as global overcapacity bred rising protectionism globally. It was originally determined that any import quota for imports of hot rolled steel products should not exceed 996,596t per year, but the final quota did so by a third.

The EEU commission notes the measure will not be applicable to countries falling under the Generalised System of Preferences, except for South Korea. Nor will it apply to CIS free trade agreement countries, except for Ukraine.