Europe slaps more trade sanctions on US
The European Union has imposed $9.1m (€7.2m) in additional retaliatory sanctions against the US in response to antidumping measures meant to protect US companies.
The World Trade Organisation had declared the US rules illegal.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s office said the new measures were justified because US government payments to American companies are scheduled to continue for two more years despite the disputed trade law being repealed in February.
The new sanctions brings the total amount of penalties levied against the US in response to the disputed trade law to $36.9m (€29.3m), the European Commission said in a statement.
Since May 2005, Europeans have had to pay more for US clothing, textiles, machinery, paper products and sweet corn as part of the trade sanctions.
The EU executive said the measures would counter US government payments to American companies estimated to be worth more than two billion dollars over the next two budget years, ending 2008. The US payments are part of a law known as the Byrd amendment, which allows American companies to receive proceeds from antidumping duties levied on foreign rivals.
“As long as the distributions continue, the US will not be in compliance with WTO rules,” the commission said.
Eight new items have been added to the list of US products covered by the punitive 15% additional import duty, the commission said. “These products are different types of blankets, paper products, photocopying apparatus and drills,” it said.
The Geneva-based WTO ruled the US legislation illegal in 2002 and gave the US until the end of 2003 to conform. When it did not, seven countries and the EU were given the option in 2004 to impose sanctions.
The other complainants were Canada, Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, South Korea and Mexico.
The Byrd amendment was approved in 2000 and billions of dollars in payments have been distributed to producers of metals, food and other household items.
The EU said that despite the long-running fed over the Byrd Amendment, “the huge bulk of EU-US trade is trouble free.”
The two sides continue to spar in world trade talks and have slammed each other’s recent proposals over opening up trade in their agricultural sectors.
The EU and US have also come to blows over subsidies and aid it gives rival aircraft builders Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS, a dispute which is currently before a panel at the WTO.
