KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's steel industry faces huge losses caused by the U.S. decision to hike import tariffs and the Ukrainian government fears growing European protectionism will trigger even more, an official said Tuesday.
The Ukrainian government estimates that steel producers face annual losses of up to dlrs 220 million because of U.S. President George W. Bush's decision in March to slap steel imports with 30 percent higher tariffs to protect U.S. steel industry, news reports said.
Ukraine's steel exports to the United States plummeted by about dlrs seven million to 1,500 tons (1,650 short tons) in April- 12 times less than the same period last year, according to the Interfax news agency.
However, Ukrainian officials are more alarmed by what they see as rising protectionist sentiments worldwide, citing the European Union foreign ministers' decision Monday to retaliate against U.S. exports as the most recent example.
"The loss of exports to the U.S. market was not as great as the danger of a chain reaction of protective measures by other countries that import Ukrainian metal," said Serhiy Hryshchenko, deputy state secretary for economic policy, according to Interfax.
Chile, China, Mexico, Peru, Poland, and Russia already have restricted Ukrainian steel imports pending anti-dumping investigations, Hryshchenko said, adding that metals producers have seen their losses spike to dlrs 1.2 billion over the past two years- 60 percent of total losses from 1991 to 2000.
Ukraine is the world's seventh largest steel producer, according to the Brussels-based International Iron and Steel Institute.