Today’s update to the EU’s Common Customs Tariff was dominated by the continued rollout of new tariff quotas for iron and steel. Following yesterday’s publication, regulators today added another 50 quotas for products from origins including Türkiye and Ukraine. All measures were published under Regulation R1457/26 and were back-dated, taking effect on 26 August. No measures came into force today.
The themes
Regulatory activity today was a direct continuation of the work seen in yesterday's update, with a sharp focus on the administrative management of steel imports. The publication consisted almost entirely of new tariff quotas for articles of iron and steel (Chapter 73), further building out a single, significant regulatory package. The key characteristic of today's update was its retroactive nature; all 56 new records were loaded with an effective date of 26 August.
Headline items
Following yesterday's publication of steel quotas for North Macedonia and South Korea, today’s update added dozens more under the same legal act, Regulation R1457/26. The new measures establish 0% tariff quotas for a range of iron and steel products, including rails, tubes, and pipes, primarily for imports from Türkiye and Ukraine. A small number of control measures for optical and mechanical goods were also published, but the steel quotas represented the overwhelming majority of the day's changes.
Coming into force
No previously scheduled measures took effect today, and no future-dated measures were loaded in this update. The entirety of today's publication was made effective retroactively to 26 August.
What to watch
The intense focus on steel quotas this week has temporarily shifted attention from other upcoming changes. While the rollout of measures under Regulation R1457/26 appears to be the immediate priority for regulators, the several hundred future-dated certificate requirements for the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, flagged in previous briefings, remain on the horizon.