Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress the Government has made in negotiating with its EU partners about developing anti-dumping measures covering steel imports.
Anna Soubry
The EU’s anti-dumping procedures are driven by requests from EU producers to the European Commission. The Commission is responsible for considering requests for and, if appropriate, opening anti-dumping investigations. My International Comparisons working group agreed to work closely with the steel industry on supporting cases where they provide evidence of dumping, as we did with Celsa Steel and rebar last year.
The Government is strongly in favour of effective trade defences to tackle unfair trade practices. The Government voted in favour of anti-dumping measures on steel products in July and November and it was the UK that lobbied successfully for an investigation into rebar. The Government secured agreement on the need for fast and effective action at an EU level and a robust dialogue with China and other producer countries at the Extraordinary Competitiveness Council in November. We have pressed the Commission to consider ways of speeding up investigations and recently wrote to the Commission with specific proposals. We will be attending a summit meeting on 15 February to push for further progress. Recent announcements by the EU on registration measures for cold rolled strip and rebar show they have listened and are taking swifter action.
