By Julia Payne
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission plans to investigate possible safeguards for its aluminium industry to counter the impact of U.S. tariffs and propose export duties on European scrap metals exports to shore up its shrinking industry, a draft of the steel action plan showed.
The EU already has safeguards, which include import limits, in place for steel and it launched a probe for alloys in December.
“EU producers lost substantial market share over the last decade and, in addition, around 50% of primary production capacity remains curtailed since 2021,” the draft document said.
“The recently announced US tariffs on aluminium are likely to worsen the situation further with a significant threat of trade diversion from multiple destinations.”
The Commission will also make a new proposal for a trade measure for steel “based on tariff rate quotas” to replace the existing ones expiring on July 1, 2026.
The Commission plans to propose export duties and restrictions on scrap metal exports in the third quarter this year. People familiar with the matter said the Commission was weighing export duties of up to 25% on scrap metal.
The steel and metals action plan is due to be announced on Wednesday and may still be amended before then.
(Reporting by Julia PayneEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
