EU Following the US?
According to industry sources on January 7, the European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on January 27 with regard to tubes and pipe fittings imported from steel exporting countries such as South Korea. This is the first time in four years that the European Union (EU) called South Korean steel products into question. Back in 2014, it conducted an investigation on electrical steel sheets.
The recent investigation is to find out whether or not the South Korean steel products were imported at dumping prices in October last year to affect the profits of European companies and add to unemployment. In short, the investigation has the same purpose as the United States’ high import duties recently imposed on the same steel products.
European steel companies claimed in their petition that the U.S. trade restrictions can have a negative impact on themselves by causing the South Korean steel products to head for Europe instead of the U.S.
South Korean steelmakers, in the meantime, are expressing concerns over trade protectionism spreading across not only the U.S. but also Europe as the EU can impose additional trade restrictions by calling one item into question just like the U.S. did. In the United States, Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 is about to be invoked.