Government agrees to lift countervailing measure on Indian stainless steel

The UK Government on 15 June agreed with the Trade Remedies Authority’s recommendation that a countervailing measure on imports of Stainless Steel bars and rods from India be revoked.

Countervailing measures are put in place to offset imports being sold at unfair prices due to government subsidies in their country of origin. They are one of three types of trade remedies that are allowed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

The TRA found that although subsidised imports would continue if the countervailing measure were no longer applied, it is unlikely that the UK industry would be injured if the measure was no longer in place.

Trade association UK Steel said that there is “minimal supply to the UK market of stainless bars and rods by UK producers and therefore very low risk of injury resulting from the removal of the measure.”

In 2022, India accounted for the UK’s third biggest source of Stainless Steel bars and rods in tonnage. The measure had meant that importers were required to pay a tariff of 0%-4%. However, the TRA’s investigation found that neither domestic and international market conditions or historic injury data suggested that injury to UK producers would occur if the measure were revoked.

Therefore, while the TRA concluded UK producers would not be harmed by revoking the measure, doing so would help to ensure competitively-priced imports from India continue.

Stainless Steel bars and rods are used across various industries, including the automotive, aerospace and food processing industries. The bars and rods can either be used as a specific component in a larger product, for example as a propeller shaft, or they can be further worked into other stainless-steel products, for example precision components.