Brussels, 18/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Geneva verdict on the amount of sanctions that the Union is entitled to impose on US trade in the so-called FSC affair is now expected to be given on 29 April, one month and one day later than originally planned. According to the assessment forwarded by Washington last week to the panel responsible for taking a decision on this point, there should be an annual ceiling of $956 million on the trading value of exports coming under punitive tariff measures, which represents less than a quarter of the injury invoked by Europeans.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stressed that the amount put forward by the Americans is linked to the impact that FSCs are supposed to have on the Union's trade interests strictly speaking. He noted that the US estimate is based on factual data of the matter, WTO rules and "common sense". In addition, if the Union gives the target figure at $4.043 billion annually, it is because it has used a "methodology that has absolutely nothing to do with the legal standards of the WTO or the facts of the matter", it is said in Washington.
When the parties are heard on 7 March in Geneva, the US argument will no doubt focus on the "disproportionate" nature of the amount, in so far as it proceeds from the sum of illegal subsidies granted to "Made in America" exports in 2000 (which can only be a point of departure for assessment, they say). They believe the amount should reflect the estimated impact that the American provision has on European trade. In this light, the "appropriate" figure would be based on the European share of the non-American market (exports towards the rest of the world and domestic sales) which is affected, that is 26.8% - excluding all other parameters, mainly losses in terms of competitiveness of European goods produced across the Atlantic, as well as European exports and those from other countries towards the US market. Washington points out in this context that the amount of tax relief to exports for the reference year is not $4.043 billion as Europeans claim, but 3.89 billion, from which the sums obtained by service exporters should be deducted, because services are not covered by the multilateral agreement on subsidies whereby the American provision was declared illegal, that is, a total of $3.567 billion annually. One can never tell …