Restrictive effect of EU quotas on Ukrainian steel products

Export of steel products to the EU has always been under scrutiny and a subject to restrictive measures aimed to protect European producers. However, the trade war between the US and China made regulation even more complicated. Due to limited access to the US market, China started increasing steel exports to the EU. In its turn, to protect local producers, the European Union introduced a 25% duty on steel supplied by other countries in excess of the quota.

At the beginning of 2020, quotas were introduced for 11 groups of Ukrainian steel product out of 26. According to the Trade+ experts, the quotas have a restrictive effect on the exports of 6 of them. 

EU’s revision of the increase in quotas from 5% to 3% is likely to aggravate the situation further. Moreover, employing product-based quotas on the ground of historical exports prevents manufacturers from effectively adapting to market conditions and is an additional limitation.

Accordingly, the experts recommend negotiating with the EU the revision of quotas that are restrictive of Ukrainian steel products.

Read the report prepared by the Foreign Trade Research Center Trade+.

The Center was established at the Kyiv School of Economics in the framework of the project “Promotion of a Supportive Framework for Trade in Ukraine”, that is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Government.