China will bear the brunt of new steel quotas designed to reduce the EU’s steel imports by 47 percent, after the EU Commission set out plans to give preferential treatment to the countries with which the bloc has a trade pact.
On Tuesday (30 June), the commission said that half of the EU’s annual import quota – set at 18.3 million tonnes from 1 July – ‘has been reserved exclusively for preferential trading (FTA) partners, with the remaining half available to all trading partners without discrimination, including FTA partners.’
That will hurt China, which accounted for 9.9 percent of the EU’s steel imports in 2025, but does not have a trade agreement with the bloc. At 17.2 percent and 11.5 percent, Turkey and South Korea were the top two steel-exporters to the EU and are among 13 countries that have trade agreements with Brussels and have had their quotas reduced by only a third.
The other countries to benefit are India, the UK, Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil, Switzerland, North Macedonia, South Africa, Argentina, Ukraine and Singapore.
“The commission is putting in place the practical arrangements needed to ensure that the EU’s steel measure operates effectively from day one,” said EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič.
