(Sandler and Travis)
On June 10, six
countries announced their intention to begin imposing trade sanctions against U.S. exports by July due to the failure to repeal the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, or Byrd Amendment). The
move would mean higher import duties (although the exact amount was not specified) on over a hundred million dollars' worth of U.S. shipments to Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. The European
Union (EU) and Canada are already retaliating in this dispute, having imposed an additional 15 per cent duty on various U.S. exports as of May 1.
The six countries explained that the U.S. missed a
December 2003 deadline for complying with a WTO ruling against the Byrd Amendment and that "there is no indication that compliance?is imminent." The Bush Administration has included a repeal in its
last several budget proposals and repeal legislation was introduced during the last session of Congress, "but there was no attempt to discuss, even less to adopt any," the countries said. In the
meantime, more than $1 billion in collected antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties have been distributed under the law, and a fifth round of disbursements slated for this fall "would add to the
damage already done and cannot be accepted."
As a result, although "the precise date?depends on the respective domestic requirements, there is the intention to apply retaliation by July
2005," the countries warned. "As a result of the different retaliatory actions, a broad range of U.S. industries will be subject to increased duties by major U.S. trading partners." The eight
nations that have been authorized to retaliate in this dispute represent 71 per cent of total U.S. exports and 64 per cent of total U.S. imports.
The EU sanctions are primarily targeted at U.S.
paper, agricultural, textile, and machinery products, although the EU has also developed a "reserve list" of goods that could be penalized if the level of authorized retaliation increases in the
future. Canada has imposed measures against live swine, cigarettes, oysters, and certain specialty fish, but a wider range and/or larger volume of U.S. exports could be affected if the U.S. begins
distributing AD/CV duties collected on Canadian softwood lumber (once current litigation is concluded), which are deposited at a rate of about $1 billion annually.
|
