"With this decision, the USA has largely sealed itself off from the rest of the world," Hans Juergen Kerkhoff, the association's president, said in a statement, adding there was a risk that steel might now flood the European market.

"The European Union now needs to protect its local steel industry from the consequences of this protectionist U.S. policy in a comprehensive and effective way."

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Douglas Busvine)

Stocks treated in this article : Salzgitter AG, thyssenKrupp, Kloeckner & Co SE