The Genie Is Out of the Bottle (steel tariffs undermined the case for trade defense measures)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, December 8, 2003 | PASCAL LAMY

[presidio9]

Those of us, including the European Union and seven other countries, who have called consistently on the World Trade Organization to condemn U.S. safeguard tariffs on steel feel no sense of triumph that the U.S. has now lifted those safeguard measures.

[harpseal]

Ping on or off let me know.

[harpseal]

Obviously the author of this piece did not do the proper research since the conclusions reached contain some fqalsehoods.

• Recognize steel as a problem sector -- but this means redoubling efforts, such as in the OECD, to address the global market.

Steel is a problem sector due to government sunsidies of steel industries throughout the world. Instead of subsidizing the American steel industry which was our only alternatove to maintain this vital for defense industry the USA imposed tariffs on foreign steel producers.

• Respect the rules of the road, and the integrity of the rules-based multilateral trade system. Because, at the end of the day, it is . . .

Since there is no integrity in the multilateral trade system and since they ignored the facts in the Steel case this line is pure unadulterated garbage.

• Reliance on those rules, and firmness of international purpose, which has helped the U.S. pull back and agree to drop these damaging tariffs.

Would someone please explain why the USA should rely on rules which are rigged against the USA and which harmed teh USA since their adoption in teh mid nineties. Didn't anyone at teh Wall Street Journal actually listen to the negotiators at the time?

[lelio]

Respect the rules of the road

You mean: the rules of the road as setup by the rest of the world to get into our markets? Why do why have to play by these rules?

[mac_truck]

In fairness to the Wall Street Journal, this article was written by EC Trade Commissioner (a good little socialist) Pascal Lamy.