The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has published its final decision on its review of the tariff rate quotas (TRQ) on categories 4 and 7 steel – metallic coated sheet and non-alloy and other alloy quarto plate, Kallanish notes.
The decision that the current restrictions be maintained follows the recommendation issued in February despite submissions by several market players seeking changes. The review came after applications by ISTA and Babcock International Group alleging a change in circumstances.
The effect of the review comes into place from 1 April.
Comments were submitted after the Statement of Intended Final Determination (SIFD) by Spartan UK, Tata Steel UK, Stemcor, Hoa Sen Group, Posco Steeleon, the Korean government, Korea’s Iron and Steel Association (KOSA) and India’s Ministry of Commerce.
Spartan requested the TRA “extend the scope of the TRQ Review to also look into the import volume from Indonesia, to add Indonesia to the list of developing countries non-exceptions, and extend the cap on the amount of imports coming from one country within the residual quota […] to Indonesia”. However, the TRA considered the request to fall outside the scope of the review and will therefore not consider it further.
The TRA reiterates its determinations within the review are based on evidence received of production during and after the period of investigation (POI). UK producers Spartan, TSUK, and Liberty Dalzell each provided evidence of actual production during and after the POI captured by commodity codes in category 7.
The TRA concluded that part of the quota allocations for categories 4 and 7 were exhausted during the POI. Whilst individual country quotas and the residual quota for categories 4 and 7 were not exhausted during the POI, its analysis shows that individual country caps for Vietnam and Korea were routinely reached after the introduction of these caps on 1 July 2025.
It notes that only 34% of the total category 4 tariff rate quota was utilised during the POI and the TRA has concluded that the current safeguard measure is sufficiently liberal to allow downstream users of category 4 products to purchase imports from countries other than Korea or Vietnam without a significant risk of incurring the out-of-quota safeguarding duty.
