EU to probe aluminium imports redirected by Trump tariffs

Stay notified with free updates

Simply sign up I trade MEFT Digest – Directly delivered to your inbox.

The aluminum market is launching an investigation into the aluminum market by steps to protect the Beliid industry in the block from expected enthusiasm for cheap imports by EU Donald Trump’s tariff.

According to a document seen by the Financial Times, the European Commission will announce the investigation on Wednesday, whose target is to verify the sudden enthusiasm and target all trading partners. It will strengthen the gaps in its tariff system to import steel.

Donald Trump left 25 percent last week Tariff In all steel and aluminum imports, the EU promised to retaliate with tariffs up to $ 26 billion in the United States.

“The situation is also deteriorating in the aluminum sector,” the document is written. EU producers have “lost enough market shares in the last decade” and the production has not been healed from the Covid -1 epidemic, the Commission has said that high strength prices from Russia and other parts of the world have increased by high strength, sluggish demand and cheap imports.

“Recently on aluminum tariffs on the United States are likely to worse the situation with a significant threat of trade diversion from multiple destinations,” added.

Except for Norway and Iceland, which are part of the economic zone of the block and it may be subject to discount, the main source countries Aluminum The United Arab Emirates, Russia and India.

Russian imports have been declining since the entire scale aggression of Moscow in 2022, with only 6 percent of last year’s total. The EU decided to complete the import of Russian aluminum by 2026 last month, and in the meantime, the tariffs extended only in a section of the import.

Although the United States has used security fields to justify its systems, the EU WTO will use the Traditional Trade Defense Act in accordance with the rules. It matches the measures kept on steel since 2018.

The Commission’s document also states that it will ensure adequate protection for the steel industry after June 2026, when the protection expires. The steel production of the block in 2023 has been the lowest since the beginning of the records excluding epidemic years.

The commission said other countries were “raising” the pressure on the industry as the tariff barrier to keep Chinese metal blocked in the United States was “further”. The EU can become “the main adoption field of global additional capacity”.

The Commission will extend its measures to prevent China in order to block third countries. The document introduces a “molten and poured -up” rule, which can prevent metals produced in such a country subject to tariffs, but are processed elsewhere to prevent the tariff.

The Commission will also consider plans to hurt countries that limit scrap metal exports to the EU with mutual sanctions. EU scrap steel export has become more than twice in recent years, which deny a raw material for steelmakers and produces 20 percent.

The draft metallic action plan, which can still be changed before the release, was first reported by table media.

The Action Plan promises greater protection under the carbon border tax that is implemented next year.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will keep a tariff for the carbon used to make steel, aluminum and several other products, since EU producers have to pay for emissions.

Some products made from CBAM metal will be increased, it says.

There will also be an attempt to help the industry reduce its carbon emissions. Companies have complained that they cannot invest in new technologies like hydrogen -driven explosion reactors. The steel industry assumes that it must spend € 14 billion in Decarbonis up to 2030. “Most of these projects may not be economically possible in the current environment”, the document said.

The Commission advises countries to reduce fuel tax for heavy industry and to provide more subsidies for hydrogen.

This will encourage customers to buy green steel, which is more expensive than conventional supply, changing the rules of collection and determining elasticity and sustainable measures for many industrial products.

The Commission refused to comment on the proposal but said:

“We have announced that the upcoming action plan will indicate long-term measures to replace the trade defense protection systems in June 2026, in addition to the special sector-specific priority activities.”