Results of the 1st quarter on the use of the EU tariff quota in order to protect against steel imports

On March 31, 2019, the first, shortest quarter of the final protective measure introduced by the European Commission regarding the import of rolled metal into the customs territory of the European Union ends.

Recall that there are 3 periods in total (I - from 02/02/2019 to 06/30/2019; II - from 07/01/2019 to 06/30/2020; III - from 07/01/2020 to 06/30/2021) with a total duration of 10 quarters.

According to the conditions of the above-mentioned protective measure, in the event of complete exhaustion of the individual quota for a specific assortment group, the duration of which corresponds to the duration of the corresponding period (in this case, from 02.02.2019 to 30.06.2019), in the final quarter of the current period, the country receives the right to use the rest of the global tariff quota for the same assortment group. At the same time, in contrast to the individual, the global tariff quota is formed quarterly, with the possibility of transferring unused volumes of the previous quarter to the next, but only within the same period.

Note that April 1, 2019 is the beginning of the final quarter of the first period, and the issue of potential “degrees of freedom” is relevant for Ukrainian metal exporters in terms of categories for which Ukraine has an individual (“country”) quota.

Use of the global tariff quota as of March 27, 2019:

- the global tariff quotas for group 16 (wire rod made of unalloyed and alloyed steel), group 20 (gas pipes) and group 27 (cold-rolled rods and bars of unalloyed and alloyed steel) have been completely exhausted. For comparison, the level of use of the individual tariff quota for Ukraine in group 16 is 33.03%, in group 27 - 29.01%. Group 20 for Ukraine belongs to the category of the global tariff quota;

- by the end of the quarter, full use of the global tariff quota can be expected for Group 1 (hot-rolled flat products of unalloyed and alloyed steel, quota utilization rate of 93.66%) and Group 17 (corners and profiles of iron and unalloyed steel, 95.52%) ... At the same time, for Ukraine, group 1 belongs to the category of the global tariff quota, and the degree of use of the individual tariff quota for group 17 is 40.61%;

- the lowest level of use of the global tariff quota is observed in group 22 (seamless stainless steel pipes, 18.86%) and group 19 (railway materials, 21.12%). For Ukraine, these figures are 48.64% for group 22 and 0% for group 19;

- a relatively low level of use of the global tariff quota is demonstrated by group 7 (unalloyed and alloy steel plate, 29.71%) and group 28 (unalloyed wire, 33.85%). Ukrainian indicators for these groups are: 25.93% for group 7 and 50.53% �