The German Steel Association (Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl – WV Stahl) said that significant improvements have been made to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) following the European Parliament’s adoption of its position on the regulation, but critical gaps remain.
Kerstin Maria Rippel, Managing Director of WV Stahl, welcomed the European Parliament’s decision to bring the adopted amendments into the trilogue negotiations with the European Commission and the Council. Rippel said that a sustainable and workable compromise needs to be reached quickly.
Rippel said CBAM should be expanded to cover more steel-intensive downstream products than currently proposed by the European Commission.
WV Stahl warned that if the scope is not expanded sufficiently, the risk of carbon leakage could shift further down the value chain, with production moving outside the EU rather than the risk being eliminated. The association also stressed that potential practices aimed at circumventing CBAM obligations must be effectively prevented.
WV Stahl said one of the key issues that the European Parliament has yet to resolve is carbon costs on exports from the EU.
Rippel noted that European producers continue to bear CO₂ costs when exporting, while some competitors in global markets do not face comparable costs. According to WV Stahl, this could lead to market share losses for European producers and the relocation of production and emissions outside the EU.
The association therefore called for the next stage of negotiations to establish a legally robust export protection mechanism that is compatible with World Trade Organization rules. According to WV Stahl, such a mechanism is important to ensure that CBAM can protect both its climate objectives and the competitiveness of European industry.
