No Europe Without Steel

As a result of this desperate situation which is endangering the very survival of the sector, industriAll Europe is calling on the European Council to take swift and decisive action in order to restore fair trade in the steel industry. More particularly, industriAll Europe demands:

  1. The maintenance of a non-standard methodology, which is not based on the internal prices and costs of the exporting country, for calculating anti-dumping margins. For example, in the case of China, the use of a standard methodology based on subsidised (thus low) internal prices would make it impossible to initiate new dumping procedures in the steel sector.
  2. The application of this non-standard methodology to all countries that do not respect the basic principles of a market economy (the 'five technical criteria' defined by the EU).
  3. The lifting of the lesser duty rule, which reduces the room for imposing anti-dumping duties on steel and other base materials. Indeed, the lesser duty rule reduces the possibility of imposing anti-dumping duties and it is not even applied in the rest of the world.
  4. That there be no reversal of the burden of proof. As is already the case, companies from the exporting country must continue to provide proof that they are operating under normal market conditions.
  5. The speeding-up of anti-dumping procedures e.g. earlier imposition of provisional measures.
  6. The strengthening of the full range of trade defence instruments to prevent unfair trade.

IndustriAll Europe is of the opinion that the steel industry must play a part in the general revival of the European manufacturing industry and be a key element in terms of meeting Europe's objectives for a sustainable, resource-efficient low-carbon economy. In order to make our voice heard by the EU decision-makers, industriAll Europe will be mobilising thousands of steel workers in Brussels on 9th November under the banner 'No Europe Without Steel'. "We will march through Brussels to demand a future for their industrial sites, their jobs, their families and their communities. IndustriAll Europe can no longer accept the deterioration of working conditions as a consequence of unfair trade practices. The EU was able to save the bankers. There is no reason why it shouldn't also be capable of saving the steelworkers!  Action is needed and we need it, NOW!" declared Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll Europe