50% steel tariff still hangs over European Union

Axel Eggert, director general of the European Steel Association (EUROFER) commented: “The text remains vague but we recognize the efforts undertaken by Commission President von der Leyen and trade Commissioner Šefčovič to find a joint US-EU initiative on steel, aluminium and their derivatives. Work must start immediately to get back to preferential access for traditional EU steel volumes to the US as no deadline is set and we already see the huge delay, for instance, in the implementation of the US - UK deal".

Eggert added: "Ring-fencing against global steel overcapacity means close alignment of the EU's and the US' import regimes. With the proposal in September for a new, highly effective trade measure replacing the EU steel safeguards, the Commission must now prove that they are willing to take bold action that aligns the objective of the EU Steel Action Plan to promote and protect domestic steel capacity and the objectives of the deal with the US... show that the impacts of an effective steel trade measure on downstream sectors are negligible".

The joint EU-US statement of 21 August 2025 says on steel and aluminium: "With respect to steel, aluminium, and their derivative products, the European Union and the United States intend to consider the possibility to co-operate on ring-fencing their respective domestic markets from overcapacity, while ensuring secure supply chains between each other, including through tariff-rate quota solutions."

According to EUROFER, a 15% tariff on all products means an additional huge burden on steel, as many EU exports are steel-intensive, such as machinery and vehicles. In 2024 - back then with a 2.5% tariff - around 760,000 EU vehicles were exported to the US. This can be estimated at around 1Mt of EU steel, a significant part of which may disappear as a result of the new 15% tariff. The EU steel industry had already lost up to 1Mt of steel exports to the US since the application of US section 232 in 2018, down from 4.6Mt to 3.8Mt in 2024, of which around 600kt had to pay a 25% tariff. The longer the 50% out-of-quota tariff remains the more likely it will be that also those exports will be eliminated.

EUROFER claims that since 2018, the European steel industry has lost a staggering 30Mt of steel in the EU internal market and on export markets, due to the effects of global steel overcapacity – driven by countries from Asia, North Africa and the Middle East – as well as the effects of US Section 232, and a decrease in steel demand in EU steel using sectors. The effects of the latest additional US tariffs on EU steel applied since March (25%) and June (50%) had already a further destructive impact on the sector. The European Commission promised in its Steel and Metals Action Plan a “highly effective steel trade measure” to be presented by September 2025.