EU Seeks WTO Permission To Impose Sanctions On US

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

14 January 2004

The European Union on Tuesday asked the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for permission to impose sanctions on the United States over the latter's failure to repeal the "Byrd Amendment", which passes fines levied on foreign exporters on to the US firms which lodged complaints against them.

Under the auspices of the amendment, passed in 2000, complaints made with regard to foreign exporters alleged to be selling products in the US at "artifically" low prices have resulted in benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars for many sectors of the US economy, including the steel industry.

The legislation was declared illegal last year by the WTO, and the United States government was given until December 27 to repeal it, which it has failed to do.

Speaking to the Associated Press this week, EU spokeswoman, Arancha Gonzalez declined to specify the planned level of sanctions, explaining that:

"All that we are asking, for the time being, is the authority to retaliate."

It is expected that the EU's request will be discussed at a meeting of the WTO's dispute settlement body being held on January 23rd.

However according to the AP, the sponsor of the amendment, Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) was defiant, announcing following the expiry of the deadline last month that:

"The United States should not and will not be bullied into adopting the views of foreign countries that would abolish America's trade remedy laws and put US companies and their employees at risk."

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