EU hastily set deadlines for reduction of unprocessed aluminum import tariff votes

Last Thursday, a spokesperson for the European Commission stated that the European Commission’s application for a two-year reduction of the European Union’s 6% unprocessed aluminum import tariffs was being negotiated, and the committee may hastily set a deadline for the application in a hurry. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson spokesperson Peter Power stated that “at the moment the committee is conducting internal discussions, we cannot determine when it is formally put on the agenda.” Power stated that he had used December 12 as the deadline for internal discussions and he further It indicated that the completed documents will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for voting before December 20. The Council of Ministers is the last meeting this year. However, he told Platts last Thursday that he should not mention any date, because the European Commission is not yet sure when to approve the application, and he said that the application is still under discussion. He said, "But we hope to pass the application by the end of December." He added that the European Commission is still very confident that the application will be implemented in January. The European Commission’s proposed application stated that tariffs will be reduced from 6% to 3% in January, and that tariffs will eventually drop to zero by 2009. However, if regulations in January have not yet been established, market participants may demand that tariff adjustment decisions be taken back. According to a source, by the end of the year, the aluminum tariff adjustment has not yet been included in the agenda of any meeting, but he stated that the application for the proposal will end next week. He said, "We hope to pass this approval in December." The source said that although most Eastern European countries tend to lower tariffs, countries like Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands may hold opposing views. “Some of them have primary aluminum smelters in their country, and this is also more suitable for their direction of development.” The European Commission’s move to lower tariffs has caused great uproar in the European spot market, as market participants hope to postpone the transaction to next year, leading to Contractual negotiations were at a standstill for a time. Duty-paid high-quality West Aluminum also achieved a price premium of US$190-220/tonne over LME.