The Ukrainian government is in dialogue with the European Union on maintaining the current conditions for access of Ukrainian metallurgical products to the EU market, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of Ukraine Taras Kachka has said during the Forbes Ukraine Exporters Summit.
The EU plans to strengthen protection of the domestic market from steel imports after the introduction of a 50% duty on imports of metallurgical products in the US. In particular, the European Commission has proposed to halve the volume of import quotas that give foreign manufacturers the right to supply metal products to the EU without paying duty. It is also planned to increase the duty on supplies outside the quotas to 50%. The corresponding decision, if adopted, may have a significant negative impact on the Ukrainian metallurgy industry, so the government is discussing with the EU leadership the possibilities of preserving the current trade conditions for Ukrainian suppliers.
“During the war years, starting from 22, the European Union lifted a lot of restrictions on Ukrainian products, including metallurgical ones. No anti-dumping and protective measures were applied. And now, when the European Union plans to introduce such an analogy to American duties, we actually have a very delicate, but so far constructive dialogue on preserving the terms of trade and the conditions for exporting Ukrainian metallurgical products to the EU market,” Kachka noted.
At the same time, he noted that Ukraine should take into account the trends prevailing in the EU and currently focusing on such issues as environmental protection. He acknowledged that European metallurgy had been developing in the context of decarbonization for about 20 years and has the support of European governments and funds, while in Ukraine the level of subsidizing environmental projects in industry remained zero. (Minprom)