AEGIS Europe is an alliance of European industrial sectors promoting manufacturing, investment, employment, growth and innovation in an environment of fair competition and a level playing field in the EU and abroad. The alliance was created in 2016 to address the critical question as to whether the EU should accept that China was a Market Economy for purpose of anti-dumping policy. Confirming the alliance’s objective, AEGIS Europe sectors increasingly experience the critical need to expand their focus beyond EU trade defence policy and measures dealing with the effects of international economic and trade distortions, towards the root causes of distorted and unfair competition.
Well-designed and enforceable international rules that reflect today’s realities are critical for this purpose. The WTO is the regulatory institution capable of effectively framing and enforcing an international level playing field for the manufacturing industry. AEGIS Europe considers that a rules-based multilateral trade regime benefits all economies. However, the
modernization of the WTO is necessary to address competing economic and political systems.
AEGIS Europe supports the EU ambition to modernize and make the WTO more effective by introducing more transparency, new rules and disciplines and enforcement mechanisms.
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Brussels, 10 September 2024 – The Draghi Report thoroughly identifies the bottlenecks to both the EU industry's decarbonisation and competitiveness. The proposed recommendations for energy-intensive industries, including on energy, trade, carbon leakage, financing and lead markets, should be integrated into the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal and implemented with concrete measures as a matter of urgency. Alignment across different policies is crucial, and should be accompanied by sector-specific initiatives to enable the transition of each industry including steel, asks the European Steel Association.
Brussels, 05 September 2024 – The latest developments in the steel sector and across critical value chains are worrying signs of a steady deterioration, endangering the survival and the transition of steelmakers and their key manufacturing customers in Europe, such as automotive. A Clean Industrial Deal including swift and radical measures in EU industrial, energy and trade policies, is the last chance to ensure Europe’s prosperity and shield European industry from cheap imports driven by third countries’ unfair trade practices, overcapacity and lower climate ambition, urges the European Steel Association.
Brussels, 25 July 2024 – Major indicators in the European steel market show a steeper-than-expected downward trend, further impacting the outlook for this year and the next. Poor demand conditions, driven by ongoing factors such as high energy prices, persistent inflation, economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, are exacerbated by a manufacturing crisis affecting the largest steel-using sectors, including construction and automotive. According to EUROFER’s latest Economic and Steel Market Outlook, apparent steel consumption is further deteriorating. After a slump (-3.1%) in the first quarter of 2024, its rebound for the full year has been revised downwards (to +1.4% from +3.2%), as well as for 2025 (+4.1% from +5.6%). Similarly, output in steel-using sectors, after a decline in the first quarter (-1.9%), is projected to experience a deeper-than-expected recession (-1.6% from -1%). A recovery is anticipated only in 2025 (+2.3%). Steel imports continue to show historically high shares (27%).