Thirteen countries with a free trade agreement with Brussels have their quota reduced by just one-third

The EU has halved the amount of duty-free steel it will accept from abroad, but has agreed higher import volumes for more than a dozen trading partners, including Britain.

However, some steel producers have been hit harder than others with Tata Steel UK, Britain’s biggest producer, revealing its duty-free exports have been slashed by 60%.

The curbs are designed to reduce the amount of cheap Chinese steel coming into the bloc. Thirteen countries with a free trade agreement (FTA) with Brussels, including the UK, have had their quota reduced by only a third.

“The commission is putting in place the practical arrangements needed to ensure that the EU’s steel measure operates effectively from day one,” said the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič.

“We are providing market participants with predictability through clear and transparent quota distribution rules.”

The new steel safeguards mark the biggest divergence in trade with the UK since Brexit in 2020 and match similar moves announced last week by the UK to reduce foreign imports and boost domestic industries.

The EU announced last year the plans to cut overall tariff-free imports from non-EU countries by 47% on 2024 levels from 1 July 2026 and double tariffs to 50% for all imports outside those quotas.

However, it has struck deals with countries with which it already has a FTA, allowing them to sell between 66% and 67% of their historic trade on average. The allocations can be adjusted if necessary if there are shortages in supply in particular types of steel.

The countries receiving better terms are: the UK; Turkey; India; South Korea; Indonesia; Egypt; Brazil; Switzerland; North Macedonia; South Africa; Argentina; Ukraine; and Singapore. The UK government said it had secured a tariff-free quota of 2.14m tonnes out of the total 9.15m limit set under the new EU system.

There are 28 categories of product covered, ranging from rolled steel used in the automotive industry to bars used in construction to reinforce concrete. The quotas allocated to the 13 countries with FTAs were “linked to past trade”, EU officials said.