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
Reagan's heart and head were clearly on the side of free trade. While president, he declared in 1986: "Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize ... the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations."Source: The Heritage Foundation (again)It was the Reagan administration that launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986 that lowered global tariffs and created the World Trade Organization. It was his administration that won approval of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988. That agreement soon expanded to include Mexico in what became the North American Free Trade Agreement, realizing a vision that Reagan first articulated in the 1980 campaign. [emphasis added]
_____
The Uruguay Round reformed GATT and created the WTO, in case you don't have the time to look it up.
These threads are hilarious. Thrills! Chills! Logical fallacies! Incorrect data! Sophistry!
Where is the standard of living in the Western world being brought down?
One can't have FT without a lower wage base to compete with China.
Really? How many jobs are there in the US? Is it more than 1? Because probably every job in America could be done cheaper in China. So why aren't they? Why haven't all our jobs been outsourced? Could it have something to do with productivity?
Thinking about productivity might just be harder than your simplistic thinking about wages.
Read the Constitution please! the president can negotiate on foreign deals but he can not put them into law...
Thanks for the link. The EU and the US constantly use actions like this to get what they want. Our policies in terms of trade barriers and subsisdies are very similar.
http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/agri/NewsUpdates/40.htm
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/patrick.guenin/cantho/vnnews/accuse.htm
Wow, that's very scientific. You have any numbers to back that up? And this was because Marx was right about free trade?
Under my definition? Not mine. Marx said, "... in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade."
Note that Marx did not believe that so-called "Free Trade" would make everyone well off. Rather he predicted it would lead to social revolution, which he supported. Marx's ultimate goal was a one-world government under communism. Marx despised capitalism, so would have never supported Free Trade if he believe it would lead to your utopian view that "it makes everyone better off".
Oh really? Has Canada quit dumping wheat and lumber on the US?
Stanley thermoses (not as good as the Nissan ones), Carhartt, Sterilite plastics...yeah, I know it was a rhetorical question. ;)
>>What think you of the concept of a free market?
I think it will ultimately make all nations "equal", with the end-result for the United States to make it very poor by today's standards. So-called "Free Trade" is analogous to equality in education, whereby the more intelligent are "dumbed down" to make them "more-equal" to the retarded. Even Monty Python is more honest than the so-called "Free-Traders". At least, Monty admits that "all men are created equal, but some more equal than others".
The so-called "Free Traders" believe that they will eventually become the "Elite", with the masses becoming the "proletariat" -- the supporting staff -- the slaves.
>> 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.
Cut these bastards off at the pass by imposing a 100% tariff on their goods entering the U.S.
we don't have to "dump" wheat and lumber on you. Our cost of production for both commodities is lower than yours. It is your builders that want Canadian S.P.F. lumber for construction because it is stronger and weathers better than the softer wood produced in your climate. Your government has used protectionist measures to keep the costs artificially high for your consumers. Building a house? Your lumber costs are probably 20% higher than they need be. Most of our wheat is sold internationally rather than to the U.S. where we usually win on price and quality even though our farmers don't have the benefit of the massive subsidies given by the U.S. government.
But it isn't my taxes subsidizing your farmers and I'm not paying the unnecessary high prices on lumber, so if you're happy with those situations, so be it.
Do you really think that is the issue? NAFTA was approved by your legislative bodies during the Reagan years. It carries both the weight of your legislative bodies and the reputation of your government to honour deals it has signed. And I know there are far more people of honour on this site, who understand honour and integrity, than on the Dummie site.
If you expect other countries to honour deals they have signed with you, you must honour the deals that you have signed or you formally abrogate them. Ignoring them because some special interest groups are aggrieved causes the type of trade disputes that are occurring now.
hmm and NAFTA has what to do with the EU? or the WTO? Sadly we are stuck with nafta for the reasons you mention, so Canadians can keep finding different names for lumber so they can bend the rules and feel all smug about it.
Given that most of our lumber producers are U.S. owned (e.g. Weyerhauser, Louisiana Pacific)a lot of the creators of the "new products" are U.S. companies and U.S. importers, there isn't a lot to feel "smug" about.
There is still enormous frustration in this country over this issue and it is one of the factors that works against the efforts of conservatives in this country to change our government. Unfortunately this is the type of issue that lets our MSM in Canada whip up anti-American sentiment and the leftists up here feed and stay in power on this sentiment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.