The Dutch Koninklijke Staalfederatie says stainless-steel importers in Italy & Spain appear to access EU safeguard quotas more easily than Dutch firms, leaving the Netherlands facing higher import costs & risking its role as Europe's steel import hub. Quotas are legally uniform but allocated in a first-come race whose outcome depends on how fast & how strictly each national customs service works, a problem sharpened by origin-proof rules in force since 1 October & by measures that have halved Dutch extra-EU steel imports since July. The federation has engaged national business lobbies, filed a complaint & is compiling a 26-product-group dossier to prove the gap .