RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

on steel imports into the European Union

(96/C 138/07)

(Adopted unanimously, with one abstention, at the 328th session of 14 March 1996)

THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY,

- referring to its previous resolutions devoted totally or partially to problems concerning EU imports, in particular those dated 8 February and 7 June 1991, 2 June and 20 November 1992, 2 April and 19 April 1993 and 16 December 1994,

- noting that:

- more and more often the commercial activity of certain third countries is realized by way of unfair practices with undercutting amounting, in extreme cases, up to 50 % below the prices of Community producers for comparable products,

- such commercial actions are, in general, carried out by producers who are subsidized openly or surreptitiously and whose exports are not subject to a requirement to be profitable,

- Community companies, even the most competitive ones, are, of course, not in a position to counter this type of import by normal means of commercial policy,

- these unfair practices have contributed to the fact that EU steel imports, which had already risen considerably in 1994, have continued to increase. According to latest estimates, these imports exceeded 14 million tonnes in 1995 (in terms of crude steel more or less 16 million tonnes), which is by far an absolute record in the history of the Community,

- for virtually all rolled products, the market share in the EU held by third countries increased considerably last year. Between 1991 and 1995, the market share for hot-rolled coils passed from 6 to 15 %, for medium and heavy plate from 9 % to 24 %,

- in the last two years alone, growth in imports (about 8 to 9 million tonnes) from third countries represented about 33 million working hours, which justifies particular attention being given to the social consequences for workers,

- among other things, some of these imports do not provide adequate guarantees with respect to their quality and the absence of radioactivity,

- after painful restructuring, the Community steel industry has considerably improved its technical and economic competitiveness. If commercial competition was based only on the criterion of efficiency, the Community steel industry would be in a better position to face its external competitors operating under abnormal conditions and the imported quantities would decrease considerably,

- asks the European Commission therefore:

- to pay special attention - within the framework of its permanent examination of the market and the preparation of its forward programmes - to the development of imports as to both quantities and prices, and to their impact on the situation of EU companies producing and processing steel,

- as already requested in preceding resolutions, to examine and to administer complaints filed against imports with the necessary rapidity and efficiency by rigorously preserving - as in most non-European countries - the administration of anti-dumping policy from any political consideration in order that EU imports made at unfair conditions be rapidly penalized,

- to assure a particular surveillance vis-脿-vis imports from third countries for which diversions of destinations are, or could be practised. In this perspective, the maintenance and extension of the double licensing system - with adapted improvements - constitutes an appropriate and necessary measure. In particular, this system should be extended to first transformation steel products,

- to intervene to ensure that necessary quality levels are respected, taking account of the end use of the imported product, and to ensure adequate frontier checks of all products (raw materials, semis and finished products) in order to avoid the risk of radioactive materials being imported,

- to intervene once more with the Member States so that that all of them respect their obligation to notify their detailed figures on external trade in steel within a short time to the Community's Statistical Office and to issue the import documents stipulated by Regulation (EC) No 2414/95 and, should these representations not show any effect within the following weeks, to make use of other data sources to follow the development of imports in those Member States whose statistics are insufficient or delayed. Further to this insufficiency and delay the EU steel industry in unable to use the means of trade policy as stipulated in the GATT anti-dumping Agreement, nor within the same time frame as the American industry. The Consultative Committee considers it serious and unacceptable that statistics on external trade are published with a delay of up to one year or are, in some cases, completely unknown. In this situation, the maintenance of a prior surveillance system with regard to all third countries remains necessary,

- to take into consideration when negotiating with third countries - as provided for by the international agreement on textiles, where annual increases of quotas amount, on average to 3 % to 4 % - the probable development of steel consumption in the EU, given that the increase granted in the last few years (for instance, an increase of 50 % in quotas for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan within two years) risk encouraging certain third countries to expand their exports to the EU in an excessive manner,

- to draw up a list of third countries whose steel producers, according to information available to the Commission, benefit from State aid.