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To: Joe S Pack who wrote (44758)	1/15/2004 12:04:51 PM
From: Joe S Pack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

This trade war thing is slowly overtaking WOT, WAD and all other wars that are being marketed and sold by Bush and US. news.ft.com EU seeks trade sanctions against US By Tobias Buck in Brussels Published: January 15 2004 15:06 \| Last Updated: January 15 2004 15:06 The European Union and nine other trade powers on Thursday moved one step closer to imposing trade sanctions on the US, in an attempt to force Washington to revoke a clause in its anti-dumping legislation known as the Byrd amendment. Raising the stakes in yet another trade dispute with Washington, Brussels and its allies requested World Trade Organisation authorisation for slapping on punitive import duties on US exports. Although no sums have been specified at this stage, the sanctions would be likely to affect US exports worth hundreds of millions of euros. The move comes at a particularly sensitive time for the world trading system and the transatlantic economic partnership. Washington had only this week joined efforts to revive the stalled world trade talks with a widely-praised initiative by its top trade negotiator that offered a rare glimmer of hope to frustrated trade officials around the world. The EU-US trade relationship, however, faces a testing few months: Brussels is set to impose sanctions against the US at the beginning of March in a case involving tax breaks for American exporters. It would be the first time that the EU actually retaliates against the US in a trade dispute, a precedent that is likely to cause fury among Washington lawmakers. Both the tax breaks case and the Byrd amendment can only be revoked if US Congress gives its backing. The amendment, which was signed into law in October 2000, provides that proceeds from anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties shall be paid to the US companies that file the complaint. It was ruled illegal by the WTO in 2002, which argued that the law gave an undue incentive to initiate anti-dumping cases. The Geneva-based body gave Washington until the end of last year to comply with the decision, but the US has failed to act until now. Pascal Lamy, EU trade commissioner, said: "It is clear that the Byrd amendment is a WTO-incompatible response to dumping and subsidisation and must therefore go. I hope the US will now take action to remove this measure, thus avoiding the risk of sanctions." One official close to Mr Lamy said that due to various procedural steps required by the WTO and the EU, the sanctions could come into effect at the earliest in May or June of this year. The Commission says it has not yet determined the value of the sanctions it is looking for, though the EU will argue that the duties should be linked to the payments made to US producers under the Byrd amendment. EU manufacturers last year saw about $70m of their duties flow to their US competitors under the clause, giving a rough indication of what Brussels might ask for. Overall, the US has distributed about $800m in anti-dumping duties to domestic businesses, with most of those funds going to producers in the steel, metal and ball bearing industry as well as manufacturers of household items and food, especially pasta. The other complainants include Brazil, China, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Korea and Mexico.