WTO turns up heat on U.S. trade fight

The European Union and seven other key U.S. trading partners won the right Tuesday to hit American goods with more than $150 million in penalties as compensation for a U.S. law deemed illegal under international trade rules.

A World Trade Organization panel gave the EU and others the green light to levy fines in retaliation for the failure of the United States to repeal an anti-dumping law known as the Byrd Amendment.

The ruling lets the EU, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Chile and South Korea draw up lists of U.S. products they plan to sanction, possibly starting this fall. The Byrd Amendment, named for its author, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., directs the federal government to pay dumping duties it collects to American companies that can prove they are victimized by rival imports sold for prices below cost or subsidized by foreign governments.

Many economists view Byrd payments as a way of unfairly doubling penalties on foreign companies accused of dumping. First, the dumping penalties raise the price of their goods and make their products less competitive in U.S. markets. Second, cash payments to U.S. rivals give U.S. companies a competitive edge.

The Bush administration has lobbied Congress unsuccessfully to get rid of the payments and vowed Tuesday to push for repeal again. But prospects are slim for quick movement on Capitol Hill, where the law has strong support and anti-WTO feelings are running high following rulings against U.S. cotton subsidies and tax breaks for exporters.

Byrd is right on this one, we need to get out of the UN of world trade WTO and GATT. These will never work because we have no control over it whatsoever. Wonder if the Vietnam hero is going to say anything on this?

2 posted on 08/31/2004 10:28:57 PM PDT by TheEaglehasLanded

So the dumping countries retaliate. Then the U.S. really retaliates. The end result that the WTO looks like a fool and the dumpers get really hurt.

3 posted on 08/31/2004 10:30:34 PM PDT by Frumious Bandersnatch

The WTO has got to go. Along with the UN, NAFTA, FTAA, IMF, World Bank, and last but not least NATO. There is no logical reason to allow how business is conducted within the US to be dictated by the EU through the WTO.

There is no reason that America can't conduct trade negotiations with individual nations (for trade as well as defense) without the involvement of some wannabe world government that has its' own agenda. Since China has been in the WTO, they've consistently promised to abide by WTO rulings without actually employing any of them. Russia has transformed their economy into a transparent system, but China never will.

4 posted on 08/31/2004 10:41:00 PM PDT by datura (Communism didn't die with the Soviet Union, they just changed the name to Democrat.)

To: TheEaglehasLanded; Frumious Bandersnatch; datura; All

"The Bush administration has lobbied Congress unsuccessfully to get rid of the payments and vowed Tuesday to push for repeal again."

But we, Bush is on the wrong side of this issue. It's one of several domestic issues that I disagree with Bush on like the borders, GAT, NAFTA, persricption drugs...

I better shut-up I'm depressing myself

Stay Strong,
Fuzzy122

5 posted on 08/31/2004 10:54:15 PM PDT by fuzzy122 (GBGB [God Bless George Bush])

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