Deindustrialization in Europe: Confindustria, BDI and Medef call for safeguards beyond steel

FRIDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2026

In the declaration signed in Berlin on 5 November, the industries of Italy, Germany and France ask to extend the steel model, with a 50% duty above the quota, to other sectors, and to set conditions on Chinese investment.

Deindustrialization in Europe now worries business enough to bring three associations together in a single appeal. On 5 November in Berlin, Italy's Confindustria, Germany's BDI and France's Medef signed a joint declaration asking the EU to extend the safeguards now in force on steel to other sectors, to set conditions on Chinese investment and to bring industrial energy prices back to pre-crisis levels.

What they ask for against deindustrialization in Europe

The document came out of the eighth Trilateral Business Forum of the three associations, prepared together with BusinessEurope, and is titled "How to save European industry: a path toward resilience and competitiveness in a changing world". The diagnosis is blunt: Europe is losing entire industries, supply chains, investment, jobs and skills. Among the causes the text lists geopolitical tensions, state-induced global overcapacity, energy costs and strategic dependencies.

Compared with the declaration signed in Rome in 2025, which set out six priorities, the new text focuses on three fronts: defence against unfair competition, investment and energy. The points with figures or precise commitments are these:

• Safeguards: extend to other sectors the safeguards and similar tools now applied to steel, and strengthen trade defence instruments.
• Steel, the model they cite: since 1 July 2026 an annual quota of about 18.3 million tonnes and a 50% duty on volumes above it, against 25% under the previous regime.
• China: substantive reciprocity in market access and three requirements for investment, namely a minimum share of EU workers, procurement of EU-made components and data storage.
• Investment: up to 1,200 billion euro of additional investment is needed every year for competitiveness, decarbonisation and resilience, without new taxes on companies.
• Energy: bring industrial prices back to pre-crisis levels and revise the ETS, the EU emissions market, so that costs remain manageable.

Steel is the model: quotas and a 50% duty

To understand what "extending the steel safeguards" means, look at the regime the associations hold up as an example. Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 applies from 1 July 2026 and replaced the old safeguard, which expired on 30 June. It sets an overall quota of 18,345,922 tonnes a year, split by product category: while the quota is open steel enters without an extra duty, once it is used up importers pay 50% of the value. The regulation also introduces the "melt and pour" rule: what counts is the country where the steel was cast, and the importer must prove it with the producer's certificates.

The three associations do not say which sectors should follow. On 16 October, however, the European Council had already named chemicals and machinery as possible candidates for new safeguards: the request from the industrialists of Italy, Germany and France adds political weight to that route.

China: reciprocity and conditions on investment

The passage on China is the most concrete in the document. The associations want real progress from the trade agreement just concluded with Beijing and want Chinese investment in Europe tied to precise requirements: a minimum share of European workers, components bought in the EU, data stored in Europe. The stated aim is to stop a Chinese factory in Europe from merely assembling imported parts.

This is a business position, not a rule: the Commission has not yet tabled proposals with these requirements, and for now no duty changes.

What it means for importers

The document does not move today's costs by a single euro: a shipment arriving this week pays the same duties as yesterday. Still, the fact that the industry associations of Italy, Germany and France ask for the same thing as the European Council suggests that sector safeguards are becoming the standard answer to Chinese competition, and it is worth preparing before the texts arrive.

The steel example shows where the risk lies for anyone buying abroad. With a quota, the cost depends on when goods are cleared: whoever arrives once the quota is used up pays 50% more, even if the order was signed months earlier. There are three things to do. Check the customs codes of your purchases, especially chemicals, plastics, paints, machinery and their components. Make clear in contracts who pays a duty introduced during production, because under ex works terms it falls on whoever lodges the customs declaration. Ask suppliers now for origin documents on materials, such as mill certificates, which under the "melt and pour" rule a steel importer must already be able to present.

The next steps

The next date is in December, when the Commission is due to present the supplier diversification tool announced after the October summit. Any new safeguards on other sectors require an investigation opened with a public notice: that is the signal that a measure is on its way.

With La Merce, anyone importing components, machinery or chemicals faces the push against deindustrialization in Europe with customs codes already checked, origin certificates for materials collected from the supplier and a second producer already sampled, so an exhausted quota does not stop delivery.

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