Op-Ed: “Taming Global Overcapacity: Breaking Down the Commission’s Proposal for a New Trade Measure on Steel Imports”

On 7 October 2025, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation addressing the negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity in the EU steel market. While primarily intended to replace the applicable safeguard measures on steel products in place since 2018, the proposed regulation does much more than that, reflecting a marked shift in the EU’s approach to trade policy. This is evident not only from the nature and form of the proposed measures, but also from the way in which the EU purports to claim their compatibility with World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) law.

In short, the Commission’s new proposed regulation would implement a combination of tariff quotas and customs duties on all imports o