US, European Commission Agree to Accelerate Steel Talks

Tai and Dombrovskis discussed the role of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which will have its third meeting later this year. Among its objectives, the TTC aims to promote competitiveness, trade, and investment, as well as strengthen industrial leadership and cooperate on the development and deployment of new technologies.

The electric vehicle provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 were also discussed by the two leaders. The Act includes significant tax credits for Americans to purchase EVs assembled in North America.

While the importance of the steel industry on the federal and global level is encouraging, the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) cautions that the acceleration of talks must not be so rushed as to forget greater objectives.

“As the pace of the global arrangement discussions accelerate, it is important that we ensure the faster pace does not negatively impact the long-term climate goals and trade objectives of the US,” SMA president Philip Bell told SMU. “America leads the way in both lower emissions steel production and open markets.  We must end up at a place where our work with EU truly lowers carbon emissions, and creates a positive, fair-trade environment that does not result in a surge of unfairly traded imports.”

The US last year negotiated a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) agreement with the European Union that significantly scaled back Section 232 tariffs on the trade bloc.

As part of that deal, the US and the EU are trying to come up with a common set of rules on reducing C02 emissions in steel and aluminum by 2024.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com