Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Steel is a problem and there is a lot of effort going in now to look at how we solve that. In simple terms there is what is called a safeguard measure that has been introduced by the EU. As a result of Covid-19 and a lack of building activity globally, the EU decided that it needed to act to protect the EU steel industry, and therefore it introduced what is called a safeguard measure, which effectively is a 25% tariff or duty on steel coming into the EU from a third country. The problem on the island of Ireland is that, under that measure, an EU country importing steel gets a certain quota that it can import before the duty applies. However, because Northern Ireland is not an EU country, if it imports that steel from the UK because it is part of the UK customs code, my understanding is that it does not have the quota exemption, so to speak, to avoid that 25% tariff. Ironically, if the steel were to be brought in through Dublin, not only could that be done without having to pay the 25%, it could also potentially be supplied into Northern Ireland without having to pay the 25%. However, if it comes through Belfast, there is a problem. The additional problem is that while that sounds like a solution, actually it is ports in Northern Ireland that are geared up to offload steel whereas Dublin Port is not. There are multiple issues here that people are trying to work out at the moment in terms of how we respond to that but, again, it is essentially a consequence of the complexity of the trading environment to which Brexit leads.

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