Laboratory of Geoeconomics: EU Steel Trade Policy as a Driver of Industrial Strategic Autonomy (1970s-2025)

European Union trade policy increasingly serves geoeconomic objectives. The evolution of trade instruments in the steel sector particularly demonstrates this shift, becoming a tool to counter Chinese competition and influence. The Commission's proposed post-2026 trade measure and push for a "steel club" with like-minded partners against Chinese overcapacity signal the pursuit of permanent protection mechanisms for the sector. Simultaneously, steel trade policy serves as an institutional laboratory whose innovations diffuse across strategic sectors, with contemporary aluminum scrap measures under RESourceEU (2025) and potential copper restrictions demonstrating steel's role as a blueprint for EU geoeconomic strategy. The use of protectionist trade instruments is not new, nor is their policy diffusion. During the 1970s-1980s crisis, the Commission deployed voluntary export restraints and price agreements, while similar measures were attempted in the automotive industry against Japanese imports. Today, steel trade measures serve as a catalyst for assertive trade policy across strategic sectors. This reveals both historical continuities and significant evolution from sector-specific crisis responses to broader strategic objectives encompassing decarbonization and geoeconomic competition, demonstrating the transformation from sectoral crisis management to strategic statecraft. Based on archival analysis of European Commission documents and stakeholder interviews, this paper traces EU steel trade policy evolution from 1970s-1980s voluntary export restraints to today's multi-layered approach combining safeguard measures, anti-circumvention procedures, and carbon border adjustment mechanism. The paper argues that steel policy has evolved from sectoral crisis management into a key instrument of EU geoeconomic statecraft, serving consistently as a laboratory for policy innovation that diffuses across strategic sectors.