EU proposes steel industry protections, rattling UK manufacturers

The European Union on Tuesday proposed cutting by almost half its tariff-free quota on steel and steel products, effectively adding large tariffs on imports from countries including China, India, Turkey and the United Kingdom, which said the measures would wreck the British steel industry. The European Parliament and the European Council must now ratify or amend the proposal, which then might require negotiations with the WTO to check how member countries are affected by the measures. Judith Kirton-Darling, general secretary for the trade union bloc IndustriAll's Europe office, said in September during the Emergency Steel Social that, “steel is the backbone of Europe’s economy, yet the sector is now at breaking point.