Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to examine measures other European countries have taken to protect their steel industries against dumping to inform his policies.

Anti-dumping policy is agreed at EU level so all EU member states adopt identical trade measures to protect EU industry from dumping. These measures are only imposed following an investigation by the European Commission, which in turn must be prompted by a complaint from European industry. The EU currently has 37 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in place on steel and steel products.

As part of the International Comparisons Working Group, established following the Steel Summit on 16 October 2015, the Government has, in conjunction with representatives of the UK steel industry, examined the anti-dumping policies of some non-EU countries. The work was informed, in part, by European Commission’s own evaluation of its trade defence instruments published in 2012[1], which included a detailed comparison of the trade defence policies of other countries.

[1] Evaluation of the European Union’s Trade Defence Instruments. BKP Development and Research 2012. Vol 1 and 2.