Ahead of Friday's deadline for the notification of planned retaliation against 30% steel import tariffs imposed by President Bush in March, the European Union has submitted two lists to the World Trade organisation, detailing the products that it intends to target with punitive import taxes if the dispute is not resolved.
The first list, which contains items likely to be hit by 100% additional duties from June 18, if the United States refuses to compensate the EU for losses sustained as a result of the steel tariffs, includes: fruit juices, rice, several types of male and female clothing, iron and steel products, and leisure items such as pool tables and bowling equipment.
The second list, which will be hit by additional import tariffs of between 8% and 30% if the World Trade Organisation rules that the US steel taxes are incompatible with WTO rules, is more varied - containing several product categories which could be construed as somewhat bizarre...
As posted on the European Commission's website, the list includes: Coats, neckties, farm machinery, yachts, percussion instruments such as drums and xylophones (!), toilet paper (!!), ladies underwear, and, most perplexingly of all, 'stockings for varicose veins'.
Speaking to the EUBusiness news service following the publication of the lists on Tuesday, Anthony Gooch, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, said that the European Union would prefer to receive compensation from the United States for the damage caused by what it sees as 'protectionist' measures imposed by President Bush.
However, given that many analysts believe that the US authorities are likely to stand firm on this issue, unwilling to weather the domestic storm which would almost certainly follow compensatory tariff cuts in other areas, the European Union is ready and willing to retaliate if necessary.
'It is an instrument that is available to us,' Mr Gooch said of the retaliatory tariffs.
The US support hosiery industry waits with bated breath...
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