🔗 Share this article European Union's Proposal to Align With Trump's Steel Tariffs Poses 'Survival Risk' to UK's Steel Sector EU officials declared they will adopt Donald Trump's steel tariffs, increasing to double taxes on foreign steel to fifty percent in a move condemned as "a survival risk" to the sector in the UK. Major Challenge for British Steel Exports Given that 80% of British exports going to the EU, this policy shift creates the UK steel industry's most severe crisis, as stated by the industry association representing the sector. European Commission Proposals and Rules Through its proposal presented to the EU legislature this week, the EU executive additionally suggested reducing the current allowance for duty-free imports and requiring international producers to state where the steel was melted and poured to stop Chinese producers diverting exports through other countries. EU steel sector faced potential collapse – we are protecting it so that it can invest, decarbonise, and regain competitiveness. Overhaul of Current Framework The proposals are intended to supersede a import framework that has been functioning for the past seven years and which is due to expire in 2026 and is now considered ineffective. Inaction could have been "catastrophic" for the industry, one EU official said. Industry Response and Concerns However, industry representatives, from the industry body British Steel, said Brussels increasing duties would pose "the most severe challenge the British steel sector has ever faced". There were calls for the government to "acknowledge the urgent need to implement domestic protections to protect" the British steel sector – which is affected by a twenty-five percent tariff imposed by Trump recently – from the risk of millions of tonnes of global steel diverted away from US and European markets. This surge in foreign steel "might prove terminal for numerous steel companies. Union and Political Pressure Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary at labor union Community, said the new measures represented "a survival risk" to British steel production. Labor and business representatives called on Keir Starmer to begin talks urgently with the EU on nation-specific tariff exemptions, pointing out that the UK was now the European Union's primary trading partner. Industry Background Industry leaders in the EU have repeatedly cautioned for months that the European steel sector confronts being "eliminated" through the new 50% tariffs on exports to the US combined with high energy costs and cheap Chinese competition. Steel on in both the UK and EU is considered a essential sector, providing elemental components in products ranging from skyscraper structures, wind turbines and transport infrastructure to household appliances and kitchenware. Implementation and Next Steps These proposals must be agreed by member states and the European parliament, with the European Commission president calling on national governments and MEPs to move quickly in backing the initiative. If the plan is ratified, the EU will cut its current duty-free quota by forty-seven percent to 18.3m tonnes a annually, a volume last seen in 2013. It will impose a 50% duty on imports beyond the quota and require nations exporting into the bloc to state where the steel was melted and poured to prevent circumvention of the measures. Exceptions and Global Partnerships These European nations will be exempt from import limits or tariffs due to their strong economic ties in the European Economic Area, the EU has said. Alongside the proposal, the European Union is pursuing a "metals alliance" with the US to protect their national industries from excess production. The European Union must take immediate action, and decisively, before all lights go out in large parts of the European steel sector and its supply networks.