By Philip Blenkinsop and Barbara Lewis
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Thousands of steel workers marched through Brussels on Monday to demand the European Union maintain its defences against cheap Chinese imports, which industry chiefs said were destroying jobs and the environment.
Some 5,000 protesters packed the European district of the Belgian capital and their leaders handed an engraved metal plaque with their demands to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The Commission is scheduled to propose later this year whether to grant China market economy status, which Beijing says is its right 15 years after joining the World Trade Organization.
Critics say it would China a licence to dump products at unfairly low prices in Europe. They also say up to 3.5 million jobs would be at risk, while the Commission puts the maximum at 211,000.
Steel chiefs said surging Chinese imports would undermine global efforts to reduce carbon emissions because much of China's steel is produced using coal-fired power.
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"We export in the long term our jobs and we import our CO2," said Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel Europe, Britain's largest steelmaker.
Tata said last month it would cut 1,050 UK jobs, adding to some 4,000 British steel jobs lost in October alone.
Koehler told an audience of industry leaders, EU officials and ministers that it was impossible to compete with China when Beijing intervened to prop up loss-making plants.
Geert van Poelvoorde, president of EU steel association Eurofer and a senior executive of ArcelorMittal, told reporters Chinese steelmakers produced on average 43 percent more carbon emissions per tonne than European counterparts.
The 7 million tonnes of Chinese steel imported into Europe last year had produced 4.2 million tonnes, or 2 million cars worth, of extra carbon emissions, he said.
Koehler said that by 2030, using a carbon price assumption of 30 euros per tonne, Tata would face an additional cost of 50 euros per tonne of steel in Europe.
The carbon price assumption Koehler quoted is far higher than current levels of around 5 euros per tonne, although analysts expect the price will rise as the EU implements reforms to remove surplus carbon permits that have weighed on the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
The Commission is reassessing how free allowances are allocated and energy-intensive industries are nervous about the impact of stricter rules.
At the same time China is setting up its own emissions market. Environmental campaigners say the Paris Agreement on climate change agreed in December will eventually create a level playing field.
The Commission last week also opened three anti-dumping investigations into Chinese steel products and imposed new duties for another grade of steel.
Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said the Commission had a record number of trade defence measures against Chinese steel in place and would impose more if appropriate.
But she said it was up to industry "to be the master of its own destiny by adapting, innovating and modernising".
Anna Soubry, British business minister, told Reuters the very fact the Commission organised Monday's high-level debate was progress towards protecting industry.
"We want there to be a greener, cleaner planet, but we also need to have jobs," she said.
(Additional reporting by Alissa De Carbonnel and Maytaal Angel in London, editing by David Evans and Alexander Smith)