Government, steel industry and Turkish government demand exception on Korean steel railing

The Korean government and steelmakers attended a hearing on steel safeguards in Ankara on December 31, explaining the unjust nature of the safeguard measure and requesting a waiver for our main products. export, said the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The government imposed provisional measures on 25% tariffs on 5 steel products over the last three years (2015-2017), exceeding 100% of average imports, including stainless steel and rails. This is a result of concerns over increased US import surpluses as a result of US steel measure 232 (imposing tariffs of 10-25% on steel and aluminum). entering the United States) and the European Union's safeguards investigation into steels.

Last year, South Korea's steel exports reached 92.4 million tons, or about 818 million dollars, making it the ninth largest volume of steel exported . At this hearing, government officials, Hyundai Steel, Hyundai BNG Steel, and steel manufacturers, including Hyundai Motor, POSCO, Hyundai Motor,

The government called for the suspension of the safeguard investigation and the exclusion of Korea's main articles and quotas for each country if the final safeguard measures were unavoidable.

The Government pointed out that this steel protection measure did not meet the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, such as the rapid increase in imports , serious industrial damage or damage, increased imports and a causal link between industrial damage. The average annual steel imports from Turkey between 2013 and 2017 were only 0.9%, based on the fact that the Turkish steel industry's market share, the rates of Use and use of the facilities have improved.

He also pointed out that safeguarding measures could lead to higher steel prices in Turkey, which could hurt Turkey-related industries such as consumer and automotive industries.

In case safeguard measures would be unavoidable, it was asked to exclude steel products, difficult to satisfy by Turkish demand, such as automotive coatings, cold rolled steels, hot-rolled steels,

"We will continue to cooperate with the private sector to ensure that the Korean Government and industry utilize the various channels, including the Korea-Turkey Free Trade Agreement Implementation Committee. , until the government confirms the safeguarding of steel ".