STEEL CRISIS CAMERON HIDES BEHIND EU Updated 7 April, 2016

The UK requested from the EU an emergency meeting with the European economic ministers to discuss the crises in the steel industry. This should have been done weeks ago but at the height of the crisis PM David Cameron was busy entertaining the Chinese resident. What kind of Prime Minister is he?

The request is for a tougher action on cheap import from China which later on turned out to be a pretence because the same PM refused to vote for the EU's higher Import Tariff on Chinese Steel.

A demonstration is planned in Brussels by the workers. There was a job loss of 4,000 in October.

The US, Germany, Italy and other countries have already put in laws to prevent cheap steel from Chinese flooding their markets. Why can PM David Cameron not do the same? Instead he signed a contract with China for two nuclear Power Stations to be build which nobody wants after the recent disasters. They most probably will be building with Chinese steel.

Gareth Stace, director of the industry body UK steel, said: “The UK must seize the moment and encourage a rapid response from Brussels if we’re to prevent large scale problems for steel makers spread in Britain and across the continent.”

Axel Eggert, director general of the European steel trade body EUROFUR, called for a level playing field. He said: “We do not want to block imports, but we would like to see fair trade, and if fair trade is not provided by our partners, than EU needs to act and it needs to act immediately.  We hope this will not be one of the outcome, today.”

Unite union agreed and Unite officer Harish Patel said: “Hiding behind the EU as an excuse to do nothing will not wash with tens of thousands of workers whose livelihood depend on steelmaking in the UK. Nothing should be off the table, including a refusal to grant Chinese market economical status while it fails to abide by EU rules on fair trade. Business Secretary Sajid Javid also needs to use the opportunity to learn from his country-partners in countries such as Germany and Italy and follow their lead in developing an industrial strategy with steel at its hearts.”