U.S. Hit at WTO Over Dumping Law
By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - Member countries of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) on Thursday agreed to start a formal panel
investigation into a U.S. anti-dumping law that critics say is a
serious bar to exports to the United States.
The WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) also agreed to a Canadian request for a panel to adjudicate on whether another U.S. law on special duties on imports was in violation of global trading agreements.
And the DSB looked set to agree next month to set up three more panels to adjudicate in rows between the European Union and the United States over U.S. duties on EU steel products ruled to be undermining the position of U.S. producers.
The anti-dumping law -- in which the 15-nation EU and 10 individual WTO states lined up against the United States -- is widely known as the Byrd Amendment after its author, Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
It provides for special duties imposed on imports found by U.S. courts to be sold at ``unfair'' prices to be distributed to U.S. firms who declare the imports are undermining their own business on the domestic market.
The law has caused an uproar among other members of the 141-nation WTO, and left the United States virtually alone.
``I do not remember such unanimity on an issue since this body was set up (in 1995),'' said one long-term envoy.
The law was passed by Congress last year against the advice of the then administration of President Bill Clinton, but it is supported by President Bush and U.S. officials told the DSB on Thursday they would ``defend it resolutely.''
POTENTIAL HAVOC
The critics say the prospect of collecting the duties would encourage U.S. firms under pressure from foreign competitors producing goods more cheaply to claim they were being undermined by ``dumped'' imports, causing havoc in many trade areas.
A U.S. Customs official said in February that more than 2,000 U.S. steel, chemical and other companies were potential beneficiaries. Well over $50 million has already been distributed under the amendment, officials say.
The WTO panel on the case -- in which the EU is joined by Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, with Canada and Mexico to come in later -- is likely to be set up within the next month.
The United States argues that there is nothing in WTO agreements or rules prescribing what a country can do with proceeds of anti-dumping duties. Critics say payments to private parties, rather than into state coffers, are barred.
The three steel complaints brought by the EU to the DSB, which includes all WTO members, center on U.S. anti-subsidy duties imposed on products made by European firms that were once either wholly or partly state-owned.
The United States says these companies still benefit from the effects of state support in the past.
The duties affect items like carbon-resistant carbon steel flat products from Germany and steel wire rod and line pipe from other EU member states.
In all, Brussels says, the duties have cost companies in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Sweden several hundred million dollars, while pushing up the costs of products made from them to the U.S. consumer.
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