The association of German steel and metal fabricators, Wirtschaftsverband Stahl- und Metallverarbeitung (WSM) is calling on policy makers in Berlin and Brussels for regulations that make local procurement mandatory.
WASM is demanding a strategic framework with the idea of “Buy European” that is practical and binding, so that fairness can be reinstated on European markets.
“We need to react adequately to the strategies of the USA and China that work to the disadvantage of European industries,” says WSM’s managing director, Christian Vietmeyer. “When others close their markets, or push into ours, we need to take such measures, too,” he adds.
Requirements and standards of local content should be introduced on a broad scale, including the commercial procurement sector to retain added value, employment and taxes for resilient Europe, Kallanish hears from Vietmeyer.
He underlines that “such wishes are not a result of protectionist thinking, but of economic realism.” WSM considers a “EU content standard” the only way to balance the clear disadvantage for European companies in international competition.
In this context, WSM demands that subsidies for electric cars should only be granted to cars made in Europe. “It makes little sense that other economies benefit from subsidies paid by our taxpayers,” says WSM president Ulrich Flaken (see Kallanish 18 Feb).
