OK, now it is time to hit them with a 25% tariff on goods. Trade is a TWO-WAY STREET but the idiots in the EU have not figured that out yet -- so let's show them.
Japan, Mexico Prepare to Follow EU, Canada Sanctions on U.S.
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japan and Mexico are preparing to follow the European Union and Canada in imposing extra import duties on U.S. goods after Congress failed to repeal a law that has handed companies such as Timken Co. more than $1 billion in tariffs paid by their competitors.
The Byrd Amendment, first ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization in September 2002, was introduced in 2000 to compensate U.S. industries hurt by foreign goods ``dumped'' at below-market prices. It prompted complaints by a record number of countries at the 10-year-old WTO.
Unless Congress repeals the law, the case may become the most damaging ever at the WTO when the U.S. begins distributing tariffs collected on Canadian lumber, worth $4 billion a year. Japan, the economy most affected by the Byrd Amendment, has the right to impose customs duties worth 125 billion yen ($116 million), the biggest sanctions awarded to Japan in a dispute.
``We have not yet decided when our retaliation measures will be invoked,'' said Kunihiko Kawazu, first counselor at Japan's mission to the WTO in Geneva. ``We have already been authorized to do so at any time, but we will make a judgment taking into account how the discussion in Congress goes on repealing the Byrd Amendment.''
The EU and Canada said yesterday they will impose an extra 15 percent duty on a combined $40 million worth of U.S. imports, including some types of American stationery, clothing, live swine, cigarettes and oysters, beginning May 1.
Choosing Targets
Mexico is deciding which U.S. products will be targeted, said Fernando de Mateo, the country's ambassador to the WTO.
``We're analyzing with what we're going to retaliate,'' he said. ``The problem is not revenge; the problem is you cannot have your cake and eat it. This amendment provides an incentive for producers to say `my neighbor is hurting me.'''
Mexican President Vicente Fox will decide when to apply the sanctions, de Mateo said, adding that he was uncertain about the timing of any decision.
``Japan will move slowly, but ultimately it will move,'' said Lewis Leibowitz, a trade attorney with Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington and legal counsel to Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition, an organization lobbying for the Byrd Amendment's repeal that counts Caterpillar Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Emerson Electric Co. and Nissan North America Inc. among its members.
``Retaliation alone is not going to do this,'' he said. ``If the softwood lumber duties start to get distributed, then retaliation would be huge, but while that's a good reason to repeal, the better reason is that it's a bad law.''
`Dislocations'
The law hurts the U.S. economy by creating ``dislocations'' and it acts as an incentive both to file cases at the WTO and to keep sanctions in place, Leibowitz said. U.S. President George W. Bush called for a repeal of the Byrd Amendment in his budget proposal to Congress on Feb. 7, saying that ending the law could save the U.S. Treasury $1.6 billion in the next fiscal year.
``Retaliation heightens the visibility of the law in Congress,'' says Steve Alexander, CITAC's executive director. ``Imposing retaliation gives credibility to the idea that the law is having a negative impact on the U.S. economy.''
The WTO gave the EU, Canada, Brazil, Japan, India, South Korea and Mexico the right to retaliate against the U.S. law on Nov. 27. Chile won the right to strike back on Dec. 17.
Double Punishment
In their complaints, the governments said the law enables the U.S. to punish exporters twice -- first by imposing a duty and then by giving the money collected to the exporter's rivals. After the U.S. missed an end-2003 deadline for compliance, the WTO authorized governments to impose retaliatory duties on U.S. goods equal to 72 percent of the total paid by their companies.
The European tariffs, worth about $28 million, add to trans- Atlantic trade tensions as the EU and U.S. battle over aid for aircraft makers Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., the EU challenges tax breaks for U.S. exporters worth $4 billion a year and the U.S. fights European resistance to new gene-engineered crops.
U.S. makers of steel, ball bearings, honey and candles are the main beneficiaries of the Byrd Amendment. Total payouts to the U.S. companies would rise as high as $1.6 billion this fiscal year unless the law is repealed, the EU has said.
No, just buy 100% less from Europe. They are not going to get $hit from me after the way our EU allies supported us during the Iraqi war.
I've been to Europe dozens of times, lived in Germany for three years in the Air Force, worked in Germany for about a year. Germany is my 2nd home - but I'm one bitter bastard. There is no Mercedes in my future.
I'm totally confused. The neo-cons told us GATT and WTO would create an economic utopia, not a world where trade-wars are the norm. How did this happen? Prices of goods were supposed to decrease, not increase. I remember all the great things that were going to happen. What the heck happened?
Then watch the Euro fur fly.
Doesn't the dollar's drop against the Euro have the same effect? Besides, let the Euro-bozos tax themselves into oblivion. One of these days their population may wake up (or emigrate to somplace with a higher standard of living like say, Mexico).
Actually, the Europeans are absolutely right here. Free trade only works when the trade is in fact free. The US is socialistically subsidizing these industries, which unfairly hurts European competitors. Its no more appropriate for us to do that than it is for China or Japan to subsidize their companies when they undercut American jobs and businesses. No more socialism for anybody.