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EU imposes anti-dumping duties on steel products

BRUSSELS: The European Union's executive Commission said it would impose provisional anti-dumping duties from Saturday on imports of hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy steel from China, India and Romania.

The duties, which last for six months, were announced in Friday's edition of the EU's Official Journal and take effect from Saturday.

The Commission set the anti-dumping duty at 13.2 percent for Chinese companies, 21.8 percent for Indian firms and 18.1 percent for all Romanian companies except one, Sidex SA, in whose case the duty was fixed at 9.6 percent, the Official Journal said.

"Taking into account the considerable inflow of dumped imports which were disproportionate to what, in the long run, the market could absorb ... it is concluded that the dumped imports from China, India and Romania caused material injury to the Community (EU) industry...," the Commission said.

The Commission launched an investigation of the products concerned in May after receiving a complaint from Eurofer, which represents European steelmakers.

The decision came in the same week that the European Commission imposed definitive, or five-year, anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled coil steel from Bulgaria, India, Yugoslavia, South Africa and Taiwan.

The Commission said on Monday it would also impose definitive anti-subsidy measures on imports of hot-rolled coil steel from India and Taiwan.

India and other developing countries have condemned the use of anti-dumping measures by industrialised countries, seeing them as a form of protectionism.

The EU's trade action comes at a sensitive time when it is trying to build support among India and other developing countries for renewed efforts to launch a round of global trade liberalisation talks following the failure of last December's World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Seattle.

Eurofer, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries, has filed a number of anti-dumping complaints with the European Commission in the last two years, saying there had been a sharp increase in steel imports into the 15-nation EU following the 1998 financial crises in Asia and Russia.

Under pressure from U.S. steel makers and labour unions, President Bill Clinton on Friday imposed punitive tariffs on steel imports in a move that could increase trade tensions between the United States and major steel producers including Brazil, Japan, South Korea and the EU.-Reuters