United Kingdom

Certain steel products

Supplement

The following communication, dated and received on 30 June 2025, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of the United Kingdom.

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Pursuant to Articles 12 and 9.1 and its footnote of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards, the United Kingdom notifies that on 30 June 2025, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade's (Secretary of State) final decision to vary the safeguard measure on certain steel products was announced, with effect from 1 July. The details of this are set out in this notification.

By way of background, on 28 February 2025 the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) initiated a 'Tariff Rate Quota' (TRQ) review relating to the 'Developing Country Exemptions' (DCEs) to the safeguard measure on certain steel products as set out in document _G/SG/N/10/GBR/1/Suppl.23.

On 26 March 2025, the TRA amended its notice of initiation to expand the scope of the review to account for a change of circumstances, as set out in document _G/SG/N/10/GBR/1/Suppl.24.

On 13 May 2025, the TRA published its initial conclusions in its Statement of Intended Final Determination as set out in document _G/SG/N/10/GBR/1/Suppl.25. This was open to comment from interested parties until 26 May 2025, which the TRA considered when making its recommendation to the Secretary of State.

On 24 June 2025, the Secretary of State wrote to the TRA setting out his intended final decision, as set out in document _G/SG/N/10/GBR/1/Suppl.26 _G/SG/N/11/GBR/1/Suppl.21. International partners were invited to engage with the United Kingdom on this intended decision.

On 30 June 2025, the Secretary of State's final decision to vary the TRQ allocations was announced, with effect from 1 July. More details on the Secretary of State's final decision can be found on[1]:

·_        The public notice: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-remedies-notices-tariff-rate-quotas-on-steel-goods/trade-remedies-notice-202512-safeguard-measure-tariff-rate-quota-on-steel-goods

·_      The Trade Remedies Service Platform: https://www.trade-remedies.service.gov.uk/public/case/TQ0066

1.     Provide the precise description of the product(s) involved.

The product is certain steel products. Table 1 of the Annex contains a full description of the product categories and UK Global Tariff commodity codes.

2.     Provide precise description of the adjustments

On 30 June 2025, the Secretary of State announced his final decision to vary the TRQs that apply to the safeguard measure on certain steel products in the following ways:

·_        The pace of liberalisation of the measure will be set at 0.1% effective from 1 July.

·_        Country‑specific caps will be imposed on the residual quotas of categories 4 (metallic coated sheet), 7 (non‑alloy and other alloy quarto plates), and 13 (rebar) from 1 July. These caps will be 15% for category 4, and 20% for categories 7 and 13.

·_        Unused quotas will no longer be made available in the following quarter, removing the carry‑over of facility.

·_        Countries with a country specific quota will no longer have access to the residual quota in the final quarter.

·_        The list of developing countries not benefiting from an exemption will be updated to reflect UK import data for the period 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 in line with Article 9.1 of the Agreement on Safeguards

For further information on these changes, please consult the public notice or the Trade Remedies Service Platform:

Table 2 of the Annex set out the final quota amounts and allocations effective from 1 July 2025.

Table 3 sets out the changes to the list of developing countries benefiting from an exemption effective from 1 July 2025.

Table 4 outlines the developing countries exempt from the safeguard measure as Economic Partnership Agreement partners and not included in this review.

3.     Provide proposed date or actual date of introduction of the adjustments.

The adjustments will enter into effect on 1 July 2025.