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
See rude, I provided statistics that are pretty straight forward. The United States is the largest exporter in the world. Nebbie can't refute it so he throws in a question about cars. Are car exports good or bad? He doesn't say. He offers no statistics of his own so I don't know why he even bothers to post a response.
Just over two-thirds of all our exports are durable goods and over 40 percent are capital goods.
The following table shows the figures in real terms.
| Real Annual Exports | |||||||
| Exports of goods and services | Exports of goods | Durable industrial goods | Capital goods, except automotive | Automotive vehicles, engines, and parts | Durable consumer goods | All durables | |
| 1990 | 552.5 | 367.2 | 38.6 | 112.8 | 40.3 | 25.4 | 217.1 |
| 1991 | 589.1 | 392.5 | 40.5 | 123.3 | 43.2 | 25.6 | 232.6 |
| 1992 | 629.7 | 421.9 | 39.5 | 135.2 | 49.8 | 27.4 | 251.9 |
| 1993 | 650 | 435.6 | 38 | 144 | 54.3 | 29.3 | 265.6 |
| 1994 | 706.5 | 478 | 40.2 | 166.1 | 60.1 | 31.4 | 297.8 |
| 1995 | 778.2 | 533.9 | 45.4 | 197.9 | 63.4 | 33.4 | 340.1 |
| 1996 | 843.4 | 581.1 | 48 | 229.3 | 65.8 | 36.1 | 379.2 |
| 1997 | 943.7 | 664.5 | 52.4 | 281.2 | 74.4 | 40.4 | 448.4 |
| 1998 | 966.5 | 679.4 | 53.2 | 293.2 | 73.4 | 41.6 | 461.4 |
| 1999 | 1008.2 | 705.2 | 55.2 | 309.3 | 75.9 | 42.2 | 482.6 |
| 2000 | 1096.3 | 784.3 | 63.6 | 357 | 80.4 | 46.7 | 547.7 |
| 2001 | 1036.7 | 736.3 | 58.1 | 321.9 | 75.2 | 46.3 | 501.5 |
| 2002 | 1012.3 | 706.4 | 54.4 | 294 | 78.3 | 44 | 470.7 |
| 2003 | 1031.8 | 721.7 | 55.8 | 300.6 | 79.4 | 45.9 | 481.7 |
| 2004 | 1120.3 | 785.5 | 58.1 | 339 | 86.3 | 53.3 | 536.7 |
| Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis | |||||||
| Exorts of Durables As A Percentage of All Exports | |||||
| All Durables / All Goods | Durable industrial goods / All goods | Capital goods, except automotive / All goods | Automotive vehicles, engines, and parts / All goods | Durable consumer goods / All goods | |
| 1967 | 53.7% | 11.5% | 30.7% | 8.7% | 2.8% |
| 1968 | 56.1% | 11.9% | 31.4% | 9.9% | 2.8% |
| 1969 | 58.0% | 12.3% | 32.4% | 10.2% | 3.1% |
| 1970 | 57.1% | 12.6% | 33.0% | 8.8% | 2.7% |
| 1971 | 56.4% | 9.4% | 33.8% | 10.3% | 2.9% |
| 1972 | 55.6% | 9.1% | 32.6% | 10.6% | 3.3% |
| 1973 | 52.5% | 10.0% | 29.8% | 9.5% | 3.2% |
| 1974 | 52.8% | 10.2% | 30.6% | 8.7% | 3.3% |
| 1975 | 54.9% | 8.9% | 33.4% | 9.9% | 2.8% |
| 1976 | 55.7% | 8.7% | 33.2% | 10.4% | 3.4% |
| 1977 | 54.8% | 8.3% | 32.2% | 10.9% | 3.4% |
| 1978 | 56.2% | 9.0% | 32.7% | 10.5% | 4.1% |
| 1979 | 56.5% | 10.1% | 32.7% | 9.7% | 4.0% |
| 1980 | 56.8% | 11.0% | 33.8% | 7.7% | 4.3% |
| 1981 | 55.9% | 8.7% | 35.2% | 8.2% | 3.8% |
| 1982 | 55.4% | 8.2% | 35.6% | 8.0% | 3.6% |
| 1983 | 55.0% | 8.2% | 34.6% | 8.9% | 3.3% |
| 1984 | 54.9% | 7.8% | 34.1% | 9.9% | 3.0% |
| 1985 | 57.4% | 7.6% | 35.7% | 11.2% | 2.9% |
| 1986 | 58.9% | 7.8% | 36.6% | 11.1% | 3.4% |
| 1987 | 58.6% | 8.2% | 36.0% | 10.7% | 3.7% |
| 1988 | 59.7% | 8.8% | 36.6% | 10.3% | 4.1% |
| 1989 | 60.9% | 9.0% | 37.1% | 9.5% | 5.3% |
| 1990 | 62.7% | 9.0% | 38.6% | 9.1% | 6.0% |
| 1991 | 63.3% | 8.8% | 39.3% | 9.4% | 5.8% |
| 1992 | 64.0% | 8.2% | 39.4% | 10.4% | 5.9% |
| 1993 | 65.3% | 8.2% | 39.8% | 11.2% | 6.2% |
| 1994 | 65.7% | 8.1% | 40.3% | 11.2% | 6.0% |
| 1995 | 64.9% | 8.6% | 40.2% | 10.5% | 5.6% |
| 1996 | 65.5% | 8.2% | 41.1% | 10.4% | 5.8% |
| 1997 | 67.6% | 8.0% | 43.0% | 10.7% | 5.9% |
| 1998 | 68.7% | 7.9% | 44.0% | 10.6% | 6.1% |
| 1999 | 69.2% | 7.8% | 44.6% | 10.8% | 6.0% |
| 2000 | 69.8% | 8.1% | 45.5% | 10.3% | 6.0% |
| 2001 | 68.5% | 7.8% | 44.0% | 10.3% | 6.3% |
| 2002 | 67.0% | 7.7% | 41.7% | 11.3% | 6.3% |
| 2003 | 65.8% | 7.9% | 40.4% | 11.1% | 6.3% |
| 2004 | 65.8% | 8.2% | 40.3% | 10.8% | 6.5% |
| Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis | |||||
The proper response is to enforce the exact same tariffs against their goods. That is only fair!
May I ask where? Maybe you were posting under another name?
Thank you for posting those numbers.
This all begs the question though. If our trade figures have dramatically increased, where are the jobs? Where is the DOW 13,000? Where is the staggering GDP numbers? Why do we constantly read of our manufacturing industries laying off people and we hardly ever read of hirings?
I suspect that there is more to these numbers than meets the eye. Example, many textile products are actually made in Mexico or the Caribbean and when they come across the border some cosmetic changes are made to these products thuse allowing the manufacturer to put the lable "Made in USA" on the tag. Also, many raw materials are exported to third world nations like China or Japan, are converted into consumer products and sent to the US.
There are more to these numbers then just what you posted.
_____
U.S. goods exports increased by 13 percent in 2004, as compared to the 5 percent increase in the preceding year (table 1) [portion posted below]. Manufacturing exports, which account for 87 percent of total goods exports, were up 13 percent, while agriculture exports, which account for 8 percent of total goods exports, were up by 4 percent. High technology exports, a subset of manufacturing exports, accounted for 25 percent of total goods exports and were up 12 percent in 2004. U.S. goods exports increased for every major end-use category in 2004, with the largest increase in the industrial supplies and materials category, up 17 percent.Percentage increase in goods exports 1994-2004*Since 1994, U.S. goods exports are up 60 percent. Manufacturing exports increased 64 percent, while high technology exports increased 67 percent, and agriculture exports increased 39 percent. Exports of consumer goods have risen by 70 percent, while industrial supplies and materials and capital goods have increased by more than 60 percent. Of the $304 billion increase in goods exports since 1994, capital goods accounted for 42 percent of the increase, industrial supplies and materials accounted for 27 percent, and consumer goods accounted for 14 percent.
Total exports by category* (in billions of dollars)
Industrial supplies and materials: 202.0
Capital goods, except autos: 330.6
Autos and auto parts: 87.8
*Annualized based on January-November 2004 data.
_____
Even under the most restrictive definition of "durable goods" that I can imagine, figure that we export between $400 and $500 billion worth of "cars and durable goods" per year. Does that answer your question in reply #72? Let me know if you come-up with any "statistics" that suggest otherwise.
Source: 2005 Trade Policy Agenda and 2004 Annual Report, Annex I: U.S. Trade in 2003.
Textiles are not a durable good, and the U.S. does not determine whether a product is manufactured here according to what someone claims on a label.
I doubt it. The EU is a big enough market that they're basically forcing everybody to do RoHS. Component manufacturers aren't gonna keep two different production processes going (leaded vs. unleaded!). And some states here like Cali and Maine are in the process of implementing similar protocols, so it'll likely happen here in the States too before long. So it's likely to be a worldwide thing.
IIRC, telecoms and mil-spec components are exempt, since it would prove too "disruptive" to change them over to the RoHS standard. Hmm.......
Further elaboration is needed. If 50% of the cost of a product is done in the US then it can claim the "Made in the USA" lable. Belive me, there are many trick and importers engage in to earn that lable, when in fact the vast majority of the work is done outside of the USA.
That is the part I don't understand. What should we do with the duties we have collected in anti-dumping disputes ? It only makes sense to give it to the injured U. S. firm. It seems to me that we are only making the injured party whole again.
>> whether you think there was "authority" to sign the agreements, the president signed and he certainly has authority that the other countries rely on
You really don't get it, do you? The President has been given authority by the people to ignore unconstitutional legislation, but not to enforce it. BTW, are you a socialist?
Many goods which are really imports are put into the catagory of exports. Example, we export the cotton to Mexico and the shirts/pants, etc. are made from that cotton. The apparels are then exported to the United States. The problem is that since these goods have some final assmbly here in the US it never went down as a import from Mexico in the first place.
What does the import or export of cotton and apparel have to do with US exports of durable goods?
bump
The EU can kiss my wookie! If they think their stupid little sanctions will hurt us they have not seen nothing yet. If they go through with lifting the arms embargo against China, our sanctions will hit them and especially their military so hard that they will WISH they went back to 10% unemployment!
Screw the Peoples Republic of EU! They want to side with China then they do not deserve any submission on our part.
The EU subisizes AirBusted and I aint seen the WTO punish them. I call it anti-american bias.
i am anything but a socialist. i'm strictly a free enterpriser and a free trader. and i get appalled when people rely on their governments to put in arbitrary tariffs and restrictions, to protect them when they are fundamentally uncompetitive.
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