Last week the tariffs on steel imports into the Common Market were raised to a standard 9%. With very little steel of its own, The Netherlands (4.5%) wanted to keep prices low.

Continental Europe’s ailing steel industry, already plagued by overcapacity, has been seriously jarred by a recent invasion of cut-rate steel from Japan, Austria, Britain and the Iron Curtain countries. Since the Common Market’s steel producers have the right to align their prices to the lowest import offer, they have cut…