EU launches investigation into Chinese steel exports
The European Union has launched an investigation into a slew of Chinese steel which is flooding global markets and crippling the industry.
This was one of the reason given by Tata behind the decision to sell its UK business, puttings thousands of jobs at risk.
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The EU's competition body, the European Commission, said today that it had started an investigation into imports of Chinese hot-rolled flat steel, in addition to an anti-dumping investigation which has been ongoing since February.
The alleged subsidies include direct state transfers of funds, tax breaks and other waivings on income.
Chinese hot-rolled flat steel a products made by mills at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.
It was triggered by a complaint from Eurofer, using a new procedure which allows investigations when there's a threat of injury to EU producers.
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The EU now has 10 ongoing trade defence investigations into steel products, in addition to 37 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures already in place. Seven of the investigations and 15 of the measures concern steel products from China.
The Commission has nine months to determine whether to impose provisional duties on Chinese imports.