The European Commission has published the allocation of quotas by country for regulating steel production, which will replace protective measures from July 1. Kallanish notes that half of the annual quota of 18.3 million tons was allocated exclusively to the partners under the free trade agreement, and the other half is available to all countries, including the FTA partners.
Thus, the partners in the free trade agreement will retain a higher share of access to EU markets than with an average reduction in quotas of 47%. A significant number of partners provisionally agreed to the quotas allocated to them after the negotiations, the Commission said in a statement. However, the company adds that it will continue to cooperate with its trading partners in the WTO as part of the ongoing negotiations on Article XXVII of the GATT.
Since the regulations are being adopted as a matter of urgency, they are initially valid until the end of 2026. Member States will be invited to vote within 14 days of the adoption of the regulations by the Board of Commissioners.
The regulations will then be resubmitted to the relevant committee of the Member State in accordance with the usual comitological procedure by the end of 2018. 2026.
Quotas consist of two parts – those that are provided to all third countries on the most-favored-nation basis. On a national basis (most-favored-nation treatment), as well as those that are available only to countries that benefit from an existing or future free trade agreement with the EU.
In addition, when the country–specific quota open to a country with an existing or future free trade agreement with the Union is exhausted, operators from that country should be allowed access to an additional tariff quota, the country–specific FTA Quota (CSQ). Access to this quota is provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
If a country does not have a quota for a particular country in a particular product category, that country should only have access to the remaining quota "for other countries". The residual quota is also divided into two parts: the residual part of the MFN regime and the residual part of the free trade agreement.
Due to the fact that, taking into account the specifics of product category 1A, hot–rolled coils, which account for almost a third of the total quotas, the Commission considers it necessary to guarantee certain quotas to certain trading partners both within the framework of the residual quota under the most–favored–nation regime and within the framework of the free trade quota to other countries.
The Commission states that it has also identified a serious risk of displacement of certain producers, which will lead to a reduction in supply sources, which is negative.