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Thousands of steelworkers join call for action on Chinese imports

16 Feb 16 Thousands of steelworkers and their employers gathered in Brussels yesterday (15th Feb 2016) to march in protest at the importing from China of steel products sold at below their production cost.

Steelworkers march in Brussels
Steelworkers march in Brussels

More than 500 employees from Tata Steel were among those making their voices heard in the call for fair trade and competitive level-playing field. They were joined by the company’s European CEO Karl Koehler who said: “I was proud to experience the passionate spirit of our colleagues during the protest. Together with our peers in the steel industry we told European leaders loud and clear to stop the tide of unfairly-traded material that threatens our jobs, our industry and our future.”

The imports have been described as wiping out jobs across the EU and violating the principles of free and fair trade.

The march was organised, with the support of the European Steel Association (Eurofer) and its members, under the banner of AEGIS Europe, an alliance of around 30 industrial sectors.

In a speech prior to the march, Eurofer president Geert Van Poelvoorde said: “This is an important day for Europe’s steel industry. Very senior government ministers and European officials are meeting to discuss the future of the steel industry in Europe. At the same time over 3,000 steelworkers will be taking part in a demonstration to highlight their concern about a growing number of challenges facing the steel industry. I will be one of them.

"We have seen a surge of steel imports, a rise of over 100%, from China into the EU over the past three years. Imports are coming into Europe at price levels below the cost of production; this is what is known as ‘dumping’. The EU has Trade Defence Instruments (TDI) to respond to this type of behaviour, but these have been incredibly slow to utilise trade tariffs. An urgent adaptation of trade legislation is required.”

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He added that 85,000 jobs have been lost in the European steel industry since the financial crisis and that in the past six months alone, 7,000 more jobs have gone.

Koehler said: “The European steel industry is in a fierce fight for its future. Huge global overcapacity and unfair trade practices – mainly by China and Russia – have pushed steel prices to historically low levels. The dumping of steel below its cost of production will continue as long as our regional, national and European leaders fail to introduce trade defence protections quickly and effectively. Measures so far have been slow and half-hearted.”

The protesters were also opposed to the prospect of granting of Market Economy Status (MES) to China. “The situation will become even more pronounced if China is granted MES as it would essentially give China a licence to dump,” said Van Poelvoorde. “A decision to grant China MES is illogical; China is not a market economy and only fulfils one of the five criteria set out by the EU for countries to be deemed as such.”

Koehler added that, while it and other European steel producers are battling to compete against imported steel, the industry also faces environmental rules not imposed on other nations. The European Union’s Emissions Trading System makes it increasingly expensive to produce steel in Europe. But it does not stop those who produce it elsewhere at lower environmental standards and then import it into Europe.  “The tragic result of such rules is to import CO2 and export jobs. This must change and it must change fast: fair competition means playing by the same rules,” he said.

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