German stainless steel trader Gerber Steel is proposing that an annual tonnage of steel imports be exempt from EU safeguard tariffs if the importer is a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME).
Gerber finds that SMEs, in particular, suffer from high tariffs, although they cause limited carbon emissions, especially when CBAM is also accounted for. This double burden for SMEs “means an enormous bureaucratic effort, and also competitive disadvantages against bigger corporations,” says chief executive Thorsten Gerber. “According to Eursostat, 3% of large companies in the EU are responsible for 57% of all steel imports. Therefore, SMEs cannot be blamed for possible dumping and should be exempted from European trade defence measures,” he tells Kallanish.
As a solution, Gerber proposes that SMEs be granted a volume of 25,000 tonnes/year that are exempt from tariffs, as well as from CBAM reporting obligations and future regulations of a similar kind.
Gerber Steel criticises the current Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) system, as it is based on a first-come-first-served principle, to the particular disadvantage of smaller players, as big players tend to exhaust the quotas with large-tonnage orders.
With the current safeguard quotas expiring in June 2026, the company furthermore warns against a hasty introduction of a new trade instrument before CBAM is functional. The lack of CBAM benchmarks and “default values” is an example of how immature regulations hurt especially small and medium-sized players, Gerber asserts.
Campaigning under the name “EU Steel Carbon Shield”, the company presented in June its concept to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Christian Koehl Germany
