India is in talks with the European Union to mitigate the impact of a safeguard duty tariff on steel imports that the EU seeks to impose. The EU’s proposed retaliatory duty comes ahead of the US imposing a 25 per cent import duty on steel imports that will be in effect from August 4.

Steel Secretary, Aruna Sharma, told presspersons that India is concerned more about the European Union tariffs as India exports nearly 6 per cent of its domestic steel production to Italy. India’s steel exports to the US are less than 1 per cent of its total domestic production. The EU’s tariffs will also magnify the fears of steel cross-dumping into India.

Sharma said: “The European Union is thinking on tariff lines. So that is a matter of concern because we export nearly 6 per cent of the domestic production to the EU, especially to Italy. Therefore it is very important for us. So, we are watching. There will be a hearing of their safeguard duty in mid-September and let's see how that proceeds.”

Sharma also noted that India will be red-flagging the investigation period that is being considered for the imposition of duty by the EU. She said: “The EU is considering a three-year period for assessing the imports.”

The Steel Secretary said that India has objected to this as 2015 was not a good year internationally for the steel sector. “It is an aberration year so it will not be appropriate to take the figures of three years. We are insisting to take the figures of two years, 2016 and 2017, to work out the exports which were going from India,” she said.

“The actual hearing will be on September 14, and then it will come into finality. We have put forward our objections to it because they have proposed a blanket order,” she added.

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