BRUSSELS — The EU announced Tuesday it would double its tariffs on steel to 50 percent, in line with U.S. levels, in a bid to bring the Trump administration to the negotiating table and hammer out a deal to get them back down again.

The proposal, details of which were already reported by POLITICO, would also slash tariff-free quotas by 47 percent to 18.3 million metric tons — in a bid to address global overproduction and a slump in European output that has left a third of its steel production capacity idle.

“A strong, decarbonised steel sector is vital for the European Union’s competitiveness, economic security and strategic autonomy,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Global overcapacity is damaging our industry. We need to act now.”

The measures would put up a barrier for cheap steel that is made with an unfair advantage compared with the EU’s steel industry, which faces decreasing demand and high energy prices.

If EU countries and the European Parliament agree, the tariffs would replace the existing safeguards that are due to expire next June.

Norway and Iceland, as members of the European Economic Area, would not be affected by the quotas and tariffs, but Switzerland and the U.K. would be at first. The EU will hold talks with its most significant suppliers after it formally informs the World Trade Organization of the new measures.

Also exempt from the measures is Ukraine, as “a candidate country facing an exceptional and immediate security situation,” the Commission said in a statement.

With Šefčovič traveling to South Africa for a G20 meeting on trade and investment this weekend, he is expected to meet several counterparts — including his British one — to discuss steel.

These talks should result in assigning a slice of the quota cake for each major exporting country so that their producers can continue to send some steel toward Europe tariff-free. Further negotiations might result in compensating these countries in other ways, for instance by expanding quotas for different products or lowering tariffs elsewhere.

Opening bid

The real aim, according to a senior Commission official, is to find a global solution for the global problem of overproduction in the steel industry.

“We have a global problem, so this requires really a global solution that has to touch on everybody,” the Commission official said about the global measures. They were granted anonymity, as is customary, to brief ahead of the announcement.

The world produces more steel than it consumes and the total capacity of all plants around the world adds up to five times the European demand.

With the plans, Brussels would match Canada’s steel protections but not go as far as U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 percent tariff, which applies from the first ton on virtually all imports. The U.S. also charges tariffs on consumer products, such as motorcycles, for the amount of steel they contain.

The proposal is meant as a “stepping stone” for a better deal with the United States, as the two sides agreed in July, the senior official said.

The EU’s 50 percent tariff — even though it applies to fewer imports than Trump’s — is “going to be a very good basis for us to engage with the United States,” the official said. They added that the bloc would hope that the proposal creates an “opening to be able to have a negotiation so that we move away from the current 50 percent that affect our steel exports to the U.S.”

The official admitted that “we would have liked to have a different situation with the United States in general and certainly in steel.”

Alongside this full legal proposal, the Commission will also ask all EU countries — represented in the Council — for permission to inform the WTO formally about the intention to reduce quotas and raise tariffs. Trading partners that qualify as a “significant supplier” will then be able to enter into bilateral negotiations.