SECTOR THREATENED
SA ‘forced’ to impose emergency safeguard steel tariffs, says Rob Davies
SA alerts the World Trade Organisation it must impose emergency steel tariffs from July to protect the local industry
SA had "no choice" but to impose emergency safeguard tariffs on imports of certain flat hot-rolled steel products to protect local industry, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Monday. SA was proposing to put on the safeguard duties from July, it said in a filing published by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in April. The tariff would be in place for three years and is proposed to fall from 12% in the first year to 10% in the second year and 8% in the third. "We’ll indicate what the quantum is when those processes are complete," Davies said on the sidelines of a visit to a pharmaceutical company. "We have to ensure that we maintain the primary steel manufacturing in SA. We have no choice actually, [if] we let it go then there will be a huge knock-on effect for the industry as a whole because we don’t have the capacity to import anyway." Domestic steel producers have said China, which produces half the world’s steel, has been dumping excess output locally as consumption ...
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