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EU to slap extra 15% duty on range of US goods
dailytimes.com ^ | 04012005 | European Union

Posted on 04/01/2005 4:02:14 PM PST by nextthunder

EU to slap extra 15% duty on range of US goods

BRUSSELS: The European Union plans to slap an extra 15 percent import duty on a range of US goods over Washington’s failure to apply an international trade ruling against an anti-dumping law, the EU executive said on Thursday.

The duty would hit imports including paper, agricultural, textile and machinery products from May 1, and affect slightly less than $28 million in trade, the European Commission said.

“The Commission took this latest step in the dispute over the Byrd Amendment in light of the continuing failure of the United States to bring its legislation in conformity with its international obligations,” it said in a statement.

The level of EU retaliation would be revised annually to adjust to the level of damage caused to EU companies, it said. While the Commission’s plan needed the formal approval of EU ministers, this was expected to be a formality, officials said, adding there were no plans to meet US officials before the additional duty came into force.

Neither was there a meeting planned between EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick — until recently US trade representative — who is scheduled to be in Brussels early next week, they said.

In November, the World Trade Organisation gave approval to the EU, Japan and others to apply an initial $150 million in trade sanctions after Washington failed to conform with a WTO ruling to repeal a subsidy programme for US companies.

Known as the Byrd Amendment, the programme distributes funds raised by anti-dumping duties on imports to the companies that initially requested government anti-dumping protection.

More than $1 billion has been doled out to US ball bearing, steel, seafood, candle and other companies under the Byrd Amendment over the past four years. Canada is expected to announce similar measures against the United States, its top trading partner, later on Thursday.

Mostly textiles: Most of the products to be hit with the EU’s extra duty relate to textiles — trousers and overalls made of synthetic fibres, for example. The only agricultural item is sweetcorn.

Five areas of stationery are also targeted, while in the machinery sector the products listed are crane lorries, along with spectacle frames and mountings. reuters


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: eu; european; trade; union; wto
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To: Sam Cree

Free markets enrich the powerful and oppress the masses, which is what free-traders truly want. (It is also what Marx argued--the above is an example of circular reasoning that would implode the brain of any sentient being, other than the most ardent protectionist).


141 posted on 04/03/2005 6:26:34 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

You are a Marxist?


142 posted on 04/03/2005 6:36:14 PM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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To: Sam Cree

I am a "free-trader." According to some here, that makes me a Marxist.


143 posted on 04/03/2005 6:43:57 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Sorry, I was confused. Yeah, clearly I agree with you on the subject. It's hard to believe in the capitalism and the free market and not also believe in free trade.

I've seen enough posts claiming libertarianism to be a form of Marxism! Strangely, there are also quite a few leftists who think themselves libertarian.


144 posted on 04/03/2005 6:56:48 PM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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To: NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
Secondly, Free Trade is an instrumental element of marxist dogma which Marx and Lennin spoke at length about.
__________

Once again, I don't suppose you'd have anything to back that up being that Marx and Lenin spoke at length about it?
145 posted on 04/03/2005 6:57:56 PM PDT by Mase
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To: NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
Deal with it-you support a key element in communist foreign policy.
= =
Yeah, right. Me and Ronald Reagan, Bill Buckley, Milton Friedman, Margaret Thatcher, FA Hayek, The Institute of Economic Affairs, The Heritage Foundation and on and on.

You are really hacking now.
146 posted on 04/03/2005 7:15:12 PM PDT by Mase
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To: Mase

And if I invest the time and find it what will you do with that information? My time is precious, make it worth my while.


147 posted on 04/03/2005 11:16:04 PM PDT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
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To: Mase

Now are you saying Reagan supported WTO,NAFTA and GATT? If I recall didn't he have alzhiemers big time about then?


148 posted on 04/03/2005 11:16:55 PM PDT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
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To: 1rudeboy

Look genius, Marx was for it because it helped bring down the standard of living in the Western world. Obviously you don't live in California where we have been raped by unfettered immigration which is a direct byproduct of NAFTA. Marx's theory is coming true through out the western USA.

One can't have FT without a lower wage base to compete with China.


149 posted on 04/03/2005 11:19:22 PM PDT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
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To: NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961; Sam Cree

See what I mean? Circular reasoning. Someone who believes Marx's theory is "coming true" is calling me a Marxist. And we've come a long way from "cars and durable goods" to "unfettered immigration."


150 posted on 04/04/2005 4:07:54 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Interesting that they (some Freepers) agree with (what is apparently) Marx's theory that free trade, the free market and capitalism will ultimately fail, thus bringing about revolution and the rise of the proletariat. (If memory serves, and it does, Castro himself, after the fall of the dot.coms, repeated exactly that quote by Marx). It makes one wonder also if those freepers are advocates of Central Planning. The assumption is that they are.

Beyond the fact that such point of view, if truly conservative, has unsettling implications for conservative doctrines of freedom and liberty, one would think that history had done a fair job by now of invalidating Marxism.

At any rate, I now understand why F.A. Hayek, famous proponent of individual freedom and personal liberty, wrote an essay entitled "Why I am not a conservative."

Although, truthfully, it is my opinion (here I agree with Thomas Sowell) that while the term "conservative" has not yet been adequately defined, it is fairly certain that believers in Marxist doctrine are not conservative, whatever else they may be.


151 posted on 04/04/2005 7:20:18 AM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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To: NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
Now are you saying Reagan supported WTO,NAFTA and GATT? If I recall didn't he have alzhiemers big time about then?
-----

You're not a member of Mensa, are you?

Reagan was for freer trade and first proposed a free trade agreement with Mexico in his 1980 campaign.

This is from the Heritage Foundation. You know them don't you? They are a conservative think tank.

"Long-Standing Support for Free Trade with Mexico. Ronald Reagan first proposed a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico in his 1980 presidential campaign. Since that time, The Heritage Foundation is proud of the role it has played in articulating President Reagan's vision of free trade in Latin America and around the world. Since the mid-1980s, Heritage analysts have been stressing that a free trade agreement with Mexico not only will stimulate economic growth in the U.S., but will make Mexico a more stable and prosperous country. Heritage has published over three dozen studies stressing the benefits of free trade in North America."

Source:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/EM371.cfm

You say you remember every detail of GATT and the WTO debate from 10 years ago but you know nothing of NAFTA, its inception, continued development or the many benefits provided to its members.

You and Lou Dobbs have a lot in common. I fully expect that you'll be linking us to the AFL-CIO website should you ever decide to defend your statements with some facts.
152 posted on 04/04/2005 7:43:44 AM PDT by Mase
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To: nextthunder

Meanwhile the French are arm-twisting a SE ASisan country that supplies cheap shrimp to the world. If they want to continue doing that to EU countries, they'll have to buy plastic planes from Airbus.


153 posted on 04/04/2005 7:43:54 AM PDT by meatloaf
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To: nextthunder
I wish they, along with Japan, would tax lumber at another 50% or so. The domestic prices are outrageous given the international hunger for wood and the environuts here at home.

And frankly, there is NO reason for this. The supply is huge.

154 posted on 04/04/2005 7:49:34 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Mase
Reagan was for freer trade and first proposed a free trade agreement with Mexico in his 1980 campaign.

Actually, the NAFTA that Bush elder negotiated and Clinton pushed through was far different from the FT pact Reagan was negotiating. Nice try though.

155 posted on 04/04/2005 8:55:52 AM PDT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
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To: 1rudeboy
See what I mean? Circular reasoning. Someone who believes Marx's theory is "coming true" is calling me a Marxist. And we've come a long way from "cars and durable goods" to "unfettered immigration

Well duh, I asked you numerous questions and you didn't give me the answers. you listed one set of data and failed to answer the othe questions. You just engaged in personal attacks. What do you expect?

156 posted on 04/04/2005 8:58:20 AM PDT by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
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To: NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961

Trust me, I expect nothing from you.


157 posted on 04/04/2005 9:06:11 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Mase
I fully expect that you'll be linking us to the AFL-CIO website should you ever decide to defend your statements with some facts.

He doesn't have the time.

158 posted on 04/04/2005 9:10:03 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: L_Von_Mises

Ah yes, the world according to the WTO:

US Subsidies = bad; Eu Subsidies = OK

Face it, the EU sunsidizes EVERY industry over here. The US, when it tries to allieviate the burden that it's domestic industry faces due to these subsidies is REPEATEDLY told by the EuWTO that we are not adhering to agreements.

The US has pretty much given up soveriegnty on trade matters, and likely will in other areas as well. It's long overdue that we cancel ALL of these agreements and restore the Constitutional Republic.

I seriously doucbt that I will ever see that day . . .


159 posted on 04/04/2005 9:13:41 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: meatloaf

Meanwhile the French are arm-twisting a SE ASisan country that supplies cheap shrimp to the world

......................................................

How so?


160 posted on 04/04/2005 9:15:13 AM PDT by kingsurfer
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