Friday, January 17, 2003
WTO says US law giving companies duties is illegal
Press Trust of India Geneva, January 17
A US law that has allowed American companies to collect more than $470 million in anti-dumping duties from the government violates global trade rules, a World Trade Organization panel has ruled.
In addition to the European Union, the case was brought by India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Thailand. The WTO rejected a Bush administration appeal of a September ruling that the US has unfairly awarded import duties collected from foreign competitors to companies including US Steel Corp, Hershey Foods Corp and Timken Co that won trade complaints.
The ruling, the latest in a string of US defeats at the world trade body, backed the contention by the European Union and other nations that governments must keep such tariffs and that distributing the funds to companies encourages them to file trade complaints.
"This measure clearly flies in the face of the letter and the spirit of WTO law," said European Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy. "We now expect the US to act quickly in order to repeal" the law.
The case prompted more complaints than any other since the WTO was founded in 1995, with 11 governments challenging the so-called Byrd Amendment, named after a US senator who sponsored the law.
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