EU to reinstate rebalancing measures to combat renewed US Section 232 tariffs
Those rebalancing measures include a mirror 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from the US.
In addition, Brussels will impose further countermeasures on the US, targeting approximately €18 billion-worth ($19.6 billion) of goods, which will then apply together with the reimposed measures from 2018.
“The objective is to ensure that the total value of the EU measures corresponds to the increased value of trade affected by the new US tariffs,” a Commission press release read.
“Since the new US tariffs are significantly broader in scope and affect a significantly higher value of European trade, the Commission launched on March 12 a process to impose additional countermeasures on the US,” the Commission said.
The consultation process for additional countermeasures proposed the targeting of industrial products including steel and aluminium products, home appliances, household tools, plastics, wood products, and more.
The countermeasures were expected to enter into force by mid-April.
Trade background
On March 12, 2025, the US imposed 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium products to include those from the EU.
The imposition of tariffs by the US was expected to lead to trade being diverted to new destinations, with steel products flooding toward markets including the EU, undermining local steelmakers and distorting competition.
“[US] President [Donald] Trump’s ‘America First’ policy threatens to be the final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry,” Dr Henrik Adam, president of European steel association Eurofer, said on March 12.
“If European steel disappears, so too does [the] European automotive [industry], European security and defense, energy infrastructure, transportation and others. What is at stake is European sovereignty,” he added.
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“Under the first Trump administration [in the US], we already witnessed the huge effect of Section 232. EU steel exports to the US decreased by more than 1 million tonnes, while of every three tonnes of steel deflected from the US market because of Section 232, two tonnes arrived in the EU,” he said.
“The US tariffs will probably lead to greater global trade imbalances, with steel that would have been shipped to the US going instead to European markets,” Adam said. “The EU was already contending with cheap steel imports – primarily from Asia, North Africa and the Middle East – and the US decision could exacerbate this situation, further damaging the European steel sector.”
The total amount of carbon steel imports to the EU in 2024 was more than 26.36 million tonnes, up by 6.4% compared with 24.78 million tonnes in 2023, Eurofer statistics showed.
At the same time, apparent steel consumption in the bloc amounted to 127 million tonnes in 2024, down by 2.3% from 130 million tonnes in 2023 and lower than during the 2020 pandemic year, when it was 129 million tonnes.
“EU steel production, which lost 9 million tonnes of capacity and 18,000 jobs in 2024 alone, is at even greater risk,” Eurofer said. “There is also the prospect that yet more steel will be deflected to the EU market if additional reciprocal tariffs are imposed by the US.”
Consequently, Eurofer has urged the European Commission to give an adequate response to the US measures to protect the struggling EU steel sector.
“It is crucial that the revised steel EU safeguard measures are robust and effective, to respond immediately and decisively to counter further deflection of the steel imports flooding the EU market. The time has come,” Adam said.
The EU’s existing steel safeguard measures have been extended several times, and were recently subject to a review, with proposed adjustments revealed on March 11. These adjusted measures were expected to come into force in April.
Trump adds downstream goods to steel tariff order
The Trump administration is singling out a list of 167 “derivative” steel items destined for addition to Section 232 tariffs in the US, Kallanish learns from a White House proclamation on Tuesday.
A few examples of the downstream articles are welded angles, shapes and sections of iron or steel; bridges and bridge sections of iron or steel; grill, netting and fencing of iron or steel wire, plated or coated with zinc; parts for agricultural, horticultural or forestry machinery; modular building units of steel, and prefabricated buildings.
Increasing imports of certain derivative steel articles have depressed demand for goods produced by domestic steel producers, Trump argues. He says it is necessary to adjust the tariff to apply to the additional downstream goods. The presidential proclamation says the derivative steel articles may be subject to an additional 25% ad valorem rate of duty. The Secretary of Commerce now has 90 days to establish a process for including additional derivative steel articles within the scope of the duties.
“Section 232 … authorises the president to take action to adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives if the president concurs with the Secretary of Commerce’s finding that the article is being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security,” the document states.
Tuesday’s proclamation includes an annex that lists the 167 goods by their numbers in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
“Except as otherwise provided in this proclamation, all imports of derivative steel articles specified in Annex I to this proclamation or in any subsequent annex to this proclamation, shall be subject to an additional 25% ad valorem rate of duty, with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption,” adds the presidential order.
The document states that the initial 25% tariff imposed in March 2018 has been an effective means of reducing imports, encouraging investment and expansion of production by domestic steel producers, and minimised the threat to US national security. Following the initial imposition of 25% tariffs, the US steel capacity utilisation rate increased to above 80%. Recently, the utilisation rate has been 74-75% (see separate story).
Some producers in other countries allegedly have evaded the measures, processing covered steel articles into additional downstream steel derivative products that were not included in the additional tariffs proclaimed in January 2020.
John Isaacson USA
Global markets face economic strains, inflationary pressures, trade measures: Irepas
The global economy faces significant challenges amid uncertainties over US trade policy before the Trump administration takes office Jan. 20, the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association, or Irepas, said in its latest short-term outlook released Jan. 17.
The proposed tariffs, including a 25% duty on imports from Canada and Mexico, could disrupt supply chains, raise costs and increase global economic strains, Irepas said, adding that rising borrowing costs could further burden industries like construction, which were already struggling with low demand and inflationary pressures.
While some importing countries already subject to Section 232 tariffs, like Turkey, may benefit from a more level playing field in the US, the proposed tariffs may also increase costs for domestic construction, it said.
“These costs impact businesses, especially in capital-intensive industries like construction and could slow economic growth further, thus adversely affecting steel demand in general,” it said.
The pressure on the global long steel products market had been increasing as there was no positive news from China yet, while there was weak demand, market protection and excess capacity, Irepas said.
The EU was expected to announce a revision of its protective measures on April 1, while Turkey and India have already announced market protection measures, it noted.
India launched a safeguard investigation on imports of non-alloy and alloy steel flat products on Dec. 19, while Turkey started an antidumping investigation on cold-rolled, galvanized and pre-painted steel coil imports from China and South Korea in December after imposing antidumping duties on HRC imports from China, India, Japan and Russia in October.
“Competition in the market is very strong, while the market can be described as very poor and unstable, with a very unsatisfactory outlook,” Irepas said.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed Turkish HRC at $550/mt ex-works on Jan. 10, down 22.5% since the start of 2024.
Biden imposes melted-and-poured requirement on Mexican steel
US President Joe Biden has ordered that steel items imported from Mexico must be melted and poured in Mexico, Canada or the US to be eligible for Section 232 exemptions. This effectively slaps a 25% tariff on any steel trans-shipped through Mexico that originated in China or other sources outside North America.
“In my judgment, these measures will provide an effective, long-term alternative means to address any contribution by Mexican steel articles imports to the threatened impairment of the national security by restraining steel articles imports to the United States from Mexico, limiting transshipment, and discouraging excess steel capacity and production,” Biden says in a White House statement seen by Kallanish.
In a presidential proclamation Wednesday, Biden says US domestic steel production utilisation rates remain below the recommended 80% threshold due to the effect of imports. The administration is monitoring unfairly traded foreign entries and circumvention of existing tariff orders.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has determined that “steel articles are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States,” the proclamation states.
In particular, “imports of steel articles from Mexico have increased significantly as compared to their levels at the time of Proclamation 9894,” which was issued by then-President Donald Trump in 2019.
Biden’s new duty order is effective immediately, the proclamation specifies.
The presidential proclamation states that importers will be required to inform US Customs and Border Protection of the melted-and-poured origin of their steel and derivative steel items. That rule will be implemented “as soon as practicable”.
