The Association of Metallurgical, Metalworking and Related Industries of Portugal (AIMMAP) warned this Thursday, 30th, that the new European tariffs of 50% on steel imports threaten the competitiveness of Portuguese and European companies in an “already highly challenging” international context.
The warning was made by the vice-president of AIMMAP, Rafael Campos Pereira, in a meeting in Lisbon with the vice-president of the European Commission, the Frenchman Stephane Séjourné, responsible for the Prosperity and Industrial Strategy portfolio.
Séjourné is in Portugal from Wednesday until Friday for a series of meetings with the Minister of Economy and Finance and the Economy and European Affairs Committee of the Assembly of the Republic.
As part of this official visit, a meeting was held today with the CIP – Portuguese Business Confederation, of which Rafael Campos Pereira is also vice-president.
The meeting between the association leader and Stephane Séjourné aimed to discuss the recent doubling of customs duties, from 25% to 50%, on European steel imports around the world, at the same time that the quota of tariff-free imported steel was reduced by almost half.
During the meeting, Rafael Campos Pereira expressed the “sector’s concern” regarding these measures and their “negative impact on the Portuguese and European metallurgical and metalworking industry”, emphasizing that “they put at risk the competitiveness of Portuguese companies in an already highly challenging international context”.
According to the vice-president of AIMMAP, these measures “will certainly greatly penalize exports and compromise investment, employment, innovation and wealth creation in one of the most important European industries”.
According to the association, today’s meeting also served to “reinforce the importance of a constructive dialogue between European institutions and industry representatives”.
The objective is to arrive at “balanced solutions that simultaneously safeguard the European Union’s commercial policy objectives and the sustainability of European companies”, he highlights.
The increase in tariffs for the steel industry is justified by the European Commission as a way to “save European steel mills and jobs”, currently in difficulty due to low-cost Chinese competition: “This is the new steel safeguard clause. This is the reindustrialization of Europe”, wrote Stéphane Séjourné in a publication on the social network X on the 7th, when the increase in tariffs was formally announced.
During the presentation of these measures to the press, Séjourné highlighted that, “in 2024, 18,000 direct jobs in the steel industry were eliminated”, considering that this “is excessive and should stop”.
In addition to doubling tariffs on European steel imports from all third countries, with the exception of European Economic Area partners, to 50%, the European Commission decided to reduce the volume of exempt imports by 47% compared to the 2024 quotas, to 18.3 metric tons per year.