b'Commissioner Malmstrm respondedIt should be noted, when coke ovens go 33 days later, on 25 November. Thecold, they go cold permanentlyunlike, say, Commissioners response was unimpressivea car factory, they cannot be mothballed. and lacking any urgency. The CommissionThe steel industry - steel manufacturing in is ready to open anti- dumping cases if thethe UK - is a vital industry. It is in danger steel industry asks us to do so, as long asof disappearing. If this happens, it will be (in they provide us with the necessary primalarge part) because the UK government had facie evidence. and time is needed tosigned over to an inadequate European ensure that any action taken is in line with theCommission and Trade Commissioner its legislation and our international obligations.rights to take the necessary action to protect This response reveals just how lethargic thethis key industry from dumping,in this Commission is in taking action on behalf ofinstance by China. EU member states (see Appendix 16 for the full letter).The EUs bureaucratic lethargy, costly in terms of jobs and (potentially) the destruction The Commission can take more than sixof a vital strategic industry, is bad enough. months to reach a decision on anti-dumpingBut there is worse to come.tariffsif it even decides to open a case on the matter at all. Any decisions are made by the Commission, not by individual member states. There are consequences. Writing to the Times on 22 October 2015, Robrecht Himpe, president of the European Steel Association Eurofer, stated that the entire process is far too slow and is resulting in the closures and job losses we have seen in the UK.The steel crisis continued. In January 2016, Tata Steel announced a further 1,050 job cuts in the UK - 750 at its Port Talbot site in South Wales and 300 at Corby and Hartlepool.It is bad enough that the UK surrendered conduct of its trade policy to a supranational body, the EU. But it is even worse when that supranational body is so listless when there is a crisis that unnecessary and immense harm is caused (in this case to the UK steel industry)with the direct consequence of closed factories and thousands of lost jobs. 102'