BRUSSELS, March 17 — The European Union will increase tariffs on stainless steel products from India and Indonesia after determining they benefited from unfair subsidies, including some from China under its Belt and Road investment programme.
The European Commission, which conducted the investigation, has set the anti-subsidy duties on stainless steel cold-rolled flat products at rates of between 4.3 per cent and 21.4 per cent, the EU official journal said on Wednesday.
They will add to anti-dumping tariffs already in place.
Indonesia’s IRNC faces a new tariff of 21.4 per cent, bringing the overall rate, including anti-dumping duties, to 30.7 per cent.
The new rates for India’s Jindal Stainless Ltd JIST.NS and Jindal Stainless Hisar Ltd JINA.NS are 4.3 per cent, taking the total tariff to 14.3 per cent.
The Commission said the subsidies took the form of preferential loans, duty exemptions and cheap provision of raw materials, partly because of export restrictions for those materials.
Indonesia also benefited from subsidies to help build up its stainless steel industry from China, which in return benefited from taking up a larger share of Indonesia’s nickel ore exports.
This is the European Union’s second investigation into trans-national Chinese subsidies. In 2020, the bloc imposed duties on glass fibre fabrics and products from Chinese companies or joint venture operations in Egypt.
The Commission said that the new tariffs, to take effect from Thursday, aim to remedy damage caused to EU producers such as Acerinox ACX.MC and Outokumpu OUT1V.HE.
“Today we are taking action to counter unfair state-sponsored subsidies in India and Indonesia that directly hurt our workers and companies in this vital industrial sector,” EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis said. — Reuters
