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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3650)	3/25/2002 10:53:58 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

EU plans 'non-protectionist' steel tariffs Andrew Osborn in Brussels and Charlotte Denny Tuesday March 26, 2002 The Guardian The European commission fired a fresh salvo in its increasingly acrimonious war with Washington over steel yesterday, planning tariffs of up to 26% on foreign producers. Alarmed that Washington's decision to impose tariffs of up to 30% on imports could divert millions of tonnes of steel into Europe, trade officials announced a range of measures to protect European industry. Brussels intends to impose tariffs ranging from 14.9% to 26% on all steel imports above a quota of 5.7m tonnes. The EU and the US are the two biggest markets for imported steel and officials fear "a huge diversion of imports from the US" unless they erect trade barriers. "What we intend to use are safeguard measures without being protectionist," said Anthony Gooch, a commission spokesman. "In doing what it did, the US knew it was going to have a domino effect. We have not taken this opportunity to indulge in protectionism ourselves." Corus, the struggling Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, welcomed the EU plan. The defensive measures, which are expected to be approved by the EC tomorrow, will take effect from April 3 and affect 40% of foreign steel imports brought into the EU each year. The quotas have been set at a level consistent with imports over the past three years with 10% added to take account of normal growth. Importers will be treated on a first come, first served basis. The EU's tariff regime will remain in place for at least 200 days and if the US measures are still in place after six months, Brussels will seek to make the arrangement permanent. EU officials say the new tariffs will affect 5.7m tonnes of foreign steel over a six-month period but deny that poor countries which have nothing to do with the transatlantic spat will be penalised. "We want to try to avoid innocent bystanders," one official said. "A great number of developing countries will not be affected. We have tried to be as reasonable as possible and countries that account for 3% or less of imports will not be hit. "But what we will not do is take on board steel that the US is turning away. That would be unfair to our producers, so what we are doing is protecting ourselves but not being protectionist." President Bush announced the US tariffs this month, saying they were necessary to help America's steel industry to recover from a wave of cheap Asian and European imports. Washington contends that the move is legal under World Trade Organisation rules which allow countries to impose temporary measures to aid industries hit by a sudden and unexpected surge of imports. But the EU disagrees and has initiated proceedings aimed at securing $2bn compensation, which it says is what the region's producers would lose over a year. It has warned it will consider retaliatory tariffs on US goods. guardian.co.uk