EU may impose restrictions on imports of steel products from Russia following the example of agrarian ones – Kachka

The EU may impose prohibitive tariffs on imports of metallurgical products from Russia and Belarus. Similar restrictions will be imposed on agricultural products from these two countries as early as July 1, 2024. Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine, told Forbes Ukraine in an interview.

The EU’s restrictive measures against Russian and Belarusian agricultural products introduced on May 30 will effectively suspend imports of these products to the bloc’s countries starting next month, the trade representative said.

Kachka explained that this is a good decision because, unlike sanctions, it is not of a security nature and does not contain humanitarian issues manipulated by Russia, and it does not affect the supply of food to world markets. At the same time, it eases tensions between Ukraine and European farmers.

In the future, a similar tool may be used to put pressure on steel products from Russia. As Kachka explained, some steelmaking capacities within the EU can actually exist only thanks to Russian raw materials, so this issue is quite sensitive.

“But in our opinion, it is immoral to maintain such ties, so we are working to replace Russian steel exports to the EU with products from Ukraine,” the trade representative added.

In late May, the EU Council agreed to introduce higher duties on grain and other agricultural products from Russia and Belarus starting July 1, 2024. In particular, the duty will be €95 per ton for grains and 50% of their value for oilseeds.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, the European Union reduced imports of mining and metals products from Russia by 39.5% compared to 2022, to 4.8 million tons, according to Eurostat. Semifinished products accounted for the bulk of the imports – 69.4% of the total supply.