“We welcome the proposal of the European Commission to adopt new tools addressing the disruption caused by subsidised foreign companies operating in the single market”, said Mario Conserva, Secretary-General of FACE – Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe – the association representing the interests of aluminium transformers and users in the EU.
Since long ago, we have urged the EU Commission to strengthen the resilience of EU economy through a much more effective and reactive EU trade defence policy against products exported at dumped prices. These exports are leading to relevant global market distortions such as excess capacity and asymmetric competition.
The European aluminium industry – in particular the downstream sector, which represents about 90% of total turnover and jobs of the sector – is suffering huge economic losses due to COVID-19 crisis and the tsunami of State-supported imports from China. Moreover, considering that China mostly produces from coal-fired power, Chinese exports also have a high carbon footprint, creating significant impact on environment and climate change and threatening EU sustainability ambitions.
As recently stated by the European Aluminium Association, the EU Commission’s White Paper on foreign subsidies in the Single Market is a first important step to defend European industries against the aggressive approach of some global powers.
The downstream companies cannot stand at the same time the COVID-19 crisis and the unfair and high-carbon imports from China, said Mr Conserva, so the EU must implement a more ambitious trade policy increasing the European companies’ competitiveness in internal and international markets.
We believe that aluminium is the ideal material for a carbon-neutral and circular future, so it is necessary to support the EU aluminium industry as a strategic value chain for the Green European recovery.”