Ankara takes legal route against EU steel curbs

Turkey has launched a legal challenge at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against EU tariffs on steel imports, the country's Trade Ministry said on March 20.

The EU launched an investigation and imposed curbs on steel imports in July 2018 in response to import duties applied by the United States.

In February 2019, the bloc announced a regulation imposing definitive safeguard measures on imports of steel products, saying that a sharp rise in steel imports was "seriously threatening" steelmakers in member countries.

The EU fixed quotas for import of 26 steel product categories, with 25 percent duty applying on further imports, for a period of three years.

As one of the main steel exporters to EU, Turkey is subjected to final curbs in 17 categories.

In a statement, the Trade Ministry said Turkey's steel exports were negatively affected by the EU measures and it has a started a lawsuit process at the WTO.

"While carrying out bilateral negotiations with EU in order to lessen the adverse impact of the measure against our country and to get the measures revised, we have decided to take additional steps to protect our rights at the WTO," read the statement.

According to latest data from the World Steel Association, Turkey was the world's 7th largest crude steel producer in January 2020.
In 2019, Turkey's crude steel production stood at 33.7 million tons.