The British government has announced the removal of an up to 4 per cent countervailing tariff on stainless steel bars and rods imported from India due to a perceived low impact on local suppliers.
The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) said this week that its recommendation that the countervailing measure on imports of stainless steel bars and rods from India be revoked has been agreed by the government. Countervailing measures are put in place to offset imports being sold at unfair prices due to government subsidies in their country of origin. They are one of three types of trade remedies that are allowed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
The TRA concluded that although subsidised imports would continue from India if the countervailing measure were no longer applied, it is unlikely that the UK industry would be injured if the measure was no longer in place.
Trade association UK Steel said there is “minimal supply to the UK market of stainless bars and rods by UK producers and therefore very low risk of injury resulting from the removal of the measure”.
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In 2022, India accounted for the UK’s third biggest source of stainless steel bars and rods in tonnage. The measure had meant that importers were required to pay a tariff of 0 to 4 per cent. However, the TRA’s investigation found that neither domestic and international market conditions or historic injury data suggested that injury to UK producers would occur if the measure were revoked.
Therefore, while the TRA concluded UK producers would not be harmed by revoking the measure, doing so would help to ensure competitively-priced imports from India continue.
Stainless Steel bars and rods are used across various industries, including the automotive, aerospace and food processing industries. The bars and rods can either be used as a specific component in a larger product, for example as a propeller shaft, or they can be further worked into other stainless-steel products, for example precision components.
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The TRA is an independent UK body, established in June 2021, to investigate whether trade remedy measures are needed to counter unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports.