EU Seeks Trade Sanctions Against US

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040115/bs_nm/trade_wto_sanctions_dc

<snip>
BRUSSELS/GENEVA (Reuters) - The European Union (news - web sites), risking fresh tensions with Washington, on Thursday asked for the go ahead to slap trade sanctions on the United States just as efforts get under way to revive global commerce talks.

The EU was set to be joined in its request, lodged with the Geneva-based WTO, later on Thursday by nine nations including Japan, China, Brazil, India and South Korea (news - web sites).

The sanctions, which could run to hundreds of millions of dollars of duties on U.S. goods, aim to force Washington to revoke a scheme under which local companies benefit when anti-dumping duties are imposed on foreign competitors.

The World Trade Organization (news - web sites) (WTO) has repeatedly ruled the measure, known as the "Byrd amendment," illegal.

[joeunderdog]

1. EU hates the Shrub.

Expect them to be a pain in his ass anytime they can be, especially before the election. The Chimp is bearing the fruits of his own arrogant foreign policy.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. Bush said he was gonna get rid of that Byrd Amendment a YEAR ago!!

.
.
. But to do so would be taking $$$$ outta his cronies pockets

And taking $$$$ outta ur contributors pockets in an election year is NOT a good idea

- he shoulda done it a year ago

3 February 2003

Bush Proposes Repeal of "Byrd Amendment" on Antidumping Duties

Administration has said it aims to comply with WTO ruling

The Bush administration is urging Congress to repeal a provision of antidumping law called the Byrd amendment after a final January ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it violated U.S. obligations.

The amendment -- formally called the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 -- provides that antidumping duties collected by the U.S. government can be shared with domestic industries that successfully petitioned for relief from cheap dumped foreign imports.

President Bush's budget proposal for fiscal year 2004 (FY2004) urges repeal of the law, saying it amounts to a "corporate subsidy" and provides a "double-dip" benefit to industries that already benefit from the increased prices on competing import goods resulting from countervailing tariffs.

The budget proposal, which was submitted to Congress on February 3 and covers the fiscal year that begins October 1, says that the law annually pays about $230 million to complainants in antidumping and countervailing cases and that this money would be better directed to "higher priority uses."



And from the original(posted) article:

"Brussels has been sitting on WTO authorization to hit Washington with $4.0 billion in duties, a record, since last May in another row over tax breaks. It has warned retaliation could start in the spring unless the U.S. system is dismantled."

/end/

so this is not a suprize for the US admin

- they're just doing the "lets see how far we can push this" thing again

or

Just another broken promise ?