Nov 06, 2023
Steel: EU Safeguard Quotas for the United Kingdom – Stainless Espresso

Steel: EU Safeguard Quotas for the United Kingdom

The EU Commission announced today that the United Kingdom is to benefit from certain safeguard tariff quotas on the basis of a delegated act adopted by the EC on 3 October 2023.

Which steel categories are to receive Safeguard Quotas?

The amendment to the safeguard measure for the steel sector concerns five categories: Stainless steel sheet and strip, hot-rolled (category 8), Stainless steel sheet and strip, cold-rolled (category 9), Reinforcing bars (category 13), Large welded tubes (category 25A) and Non-alloy steel wire (category 28).

How Brussels wastes taxpayers’ money

What at first glance appears to be an important announcement shows once again how taxpayers’ money is wasted in Brussels. Categories 8, 9, 25.A. and 28 together have a ridiculous 245 MT per quarter. According to the EC, category 13, rebar, is to receive a quota of 2127.24 MT per quarter, which is not even 0.7% of the total quota.

Instead of simply raising the other countries’ quotas, a complete procedure is now being rolled out and unnecessary work is being created for homeopathic steel quantities. Of course, Brussels is ignoring the fact that the effort involved is at the expense of the European taxpayer and clearly demonstrates the shortcomings in European bureaucracy.

Financial markets respond positively to US labour market report

According to the latest data, the US labour market cooled surprisingly significantly in October 2023 and only created 150,000 new jobs. The financial markets received the labour market report extremely positively, as a cooling of the overheated job market is expected to take the pressure off the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in 2023.