Overview
- The European Commission published the implementing regulation on June 30 and the tariff‑rate quota (TRQ) system takes effect Wednesday, July 1, capping duty‑free steel at about 18.3 million tonnes and imposing a 50% tariff on imports above those quotas.
- The TRQ allocates product‑ and country‑specific quotas using 2022–2024 reference volumes and cuts overall tariff‑free volumes by roughly half compared with the previous regime.
- South Korea received a dedicated 2.07 million‑tonne quota and can compete for shared FTA pools that could raise its practical tariff‑free access to around 3.55 million tonnes, while the UK saw a smaller cut of about 22% from last year’s volumes.
- Ukraine was granted only about 1.05 million tonnes of guaranteed tariff‑free access, far below its 2024 exports to the EU, and it must rely on contested shared pools to recover additional market share.
- The TRQ adds quarterly management, removes carry‑over for high‑pressure categories, and tightens 'melt and pour' origin paperwork to curb rerouting, a move that officials say will reduce circumvention but that traders warn will tighten EU supply, raise costs for steel users, and could prompt diplomatic or trade pushback from major exporters.