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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (844)	2/27/2004 11:35:05 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Europe trade chief confirms sanctions against US start Monday Europe will launch multimillion-dollar trade sanctions to counteract illegal US export tax breaks, European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy confirmed Thursday "I think the picture is now clear: countermeasures will come into force by Monday," Lamy told executives at a lunch here. The European measures, to be stepped up each month to increase pressure on the United States to overturn the law, "will be lifted the day Congress passes the necessary legislation," he said. Tariffs, already approved by the World Trade Organization (news - web sites), begin at 200 million dollars (164 million euros) on goods such as American meat, paper, nuclear power parts and semi-precious stones. They will be ratcheted up by 40 million dollars a month until the so-called foreign sales corporation (FSC) law is scrapped. "Our countermeasures will start in a relatively modest way but the system has been devised so that it increases every month, the notion being that this will focus minds on the necessity to comply, which is the real name of the game," Lamy said. "The name of the game is repeal. It is not retaliation, not sanctions. It is repeal, and to have a WTO-compliant legislation." The WTO has ruled that the FSC law flouts global trade rules by allowing thousands of US firms, operating through subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, to benefit from reduced export taxes. WTO arbitrators have agreed with the EU that just over four billion dollars (3.4 billion euros) would constitute "appropriate countermeasures" based on the trade impact of the US policy. Lamy was on a two-day visit to Washington, with a meeting scheduled Friday to discuss transatlantic and global trade with his friend and counterpart US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. The European trade chief said he had met in the morning with Senator Craig Thomas, chairman of the Senate international trade subcommittee, to discuss the FSC law. He also planned to meet with Senate finance committee chairman Chuck Grassley. Lamy said he had no desire to take sides on the various proposals for US legislation to replace the FSC law; he only wanted to see the final version of the proposed law. The House of Representative and Senate must find a compromise text, which must then be signed by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and checked by the European Commission (news - web sites) to see if it complies with WTO rules. The FSC row is at the forefront of a slew of trade disagreements between the Europeans and the Americans. The World Trade Organization cleared Europe on Tuesday to impose sanctions on the United States for failing to revoke a 1916 anti-dumping law declared illegal by the WTO, officials said. On Wednesday, the European Union (news - web sites) said it regretted a separate decision by the United States to suspend imports of cold cuts of meat and foie gras from France on health grounds. Another dispute is brewing over the US "Byrd amendment" allowing Washington to distribute proceeds from anti-dumping tariffs to American firms that complain of damage from foreign imports. Thirteen months ago, the WTO ruled that the Byrd amendment was illegal and set a deadline of December 27, 2003 for its revision, but the US Congress has so far failed to comply. The United States is now resisting a bid by the European Union and seven other trading partners to slap tit-for-tat sanctions on certain US imports over the dispute. In a warmer transatlantic development, Lamy lifted the threat of 2.2 billion dollar trade sanctions against the United States in December last year after Bush scrapped tariffs on steel imports. story.news.yahoo.com

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (844)	2/28/2004 8:54:12 AM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Sydney housing prices falling posted by Harmy on my board on the FOOL He lives down under A Bondi unit was bought in 2001 for $470,000, and was covered by a $400,000 mortgage. But when it sold this week the bank accepted $1000 less than that, in a market that is starting to look friendlier to buyers. The $399,000 taken for the two-bedroom unit in Penkivil Street was at least close to a break-even deal for the bank. More troublesome was a Balmoral mortgagee apartment passed in at $2.16 million last weekend, bought two years ago for $3.05 million by recently bankrupted property developer Robert Orehek. There were seven lenders with caveats registered on its title and a State Government claim for unpaid land tax. smh.com.au