A new regulation to protect the EU steel sector from the impact of global overcapacity and ensure the industry’s long-term viability enters into application on 1 July 2026.
As part of these new rules, the European Commission has published the implementing regulation setting out the distribution of tariff quotas to the EU’s trading partners. The new system – comprising reduced overall tariff quotas and a higher out-of-quota duty – aims to protect the EU’s steel industry following the expiry of the EU’s steel safeguard.
The distribution of tariff quotas is based on a set of clearly defined criteria in the EU’s new Steel Regulation, says the Commission. It ensures a predictable level of access to the EU market for third-country suppliers through a fair and objective methodology, ensuring also diversity of supply for EU downstream users.
“With today’s implementing regulation, the Commission is putting in place the practical arrangements needed to ensure that the EU’s steel measure operates effectively from day one”, said Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic: “We are providing market participants with predictability through clear and transparent quota distribution rules, while applying a fair and objective methodology.”
The implementing regulation seeks to minimise as much as possible the impact of the EU’s Steel Regulation on its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners, without compromising the measure’s effectiveness – 80% of EU imports of steel come from FTA partners.
Half of the EU’s annual import quota – set at 18.3 million tonnes by the Steel Regulation – has been reserved exclusively for preferential trading (FTA) partners, with the remaining half available to all trading partners without discrimination, including FTA partners.
The EU’s FTA partners will, therefore, retain a significantly higher share of EU market access than the average reduction of 47% foreseen by the Steel Regulation.
The EU has addressed the concerns of its trading partners through constructive discussions at the WTO (Article XXVIII GATT negotiations), with a significant number of partners provisionally agreeing to their allocated quotas as a result.
Given the need to distribute quotas as from 1 July, the Steel Regulation provides for the use of the urgency procedure. This means that the EU Member States will be asked to vote within 14 days after the adoption of the Implementing Regulation by the College of Commissioners and that the Implementing Regulation will be in force for a maximum of 6 months.
The Implementing Regulation will then be re-submitted to the relevant Member State committee under the normal comitology procedure before the end of 2026.
Implementing act distributing tariff quotas
