Brussels, 05/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Whereas the White House was preparing to render official its decision, on Tuesday the Union warned, at the highest level this time, that it was prepared to retaliate to the closing off of the American steel market. The same day, the Washington Post, unofficial but generally well-informed source, revealed a safeguard device against steel imports based on the imposition of customs sanctions of up to 30%. The Presidential verdict, awaited for for many months now with palpable apprehension, not only in Europe, from the Union to Russia, but also on other continents, would place most of the burden on the German and Asian steel industry (China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea), but would exclude the Nafta's team mates, Mexico and Canada, as well as most developing countries from the anti-import shield, and would be the most disputed and potentially devastating the United States has ever used.
The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi himself interceded with President Bush for America not to go down the line of unilateral protectionism and remain within the multilateral fold. In a letter dated Monday, Prodi said he was concerned at the prospect of a restriction of access to the American steel market, notably through tariff barriers, at the very moment when the multilateral round launched in Doha was entering its active phase. It would be a very bad signal for the system and would also pose a "crucial problem of the Union's enlargement", leaving it no other choice but to react, he warned, without returning, at this stage, to the nature and scope of the European retaliation. From 8.00 hrs. Wednesday morning, the Commissioners directly concerned (Lamy, Liikanen, Verheugen, Diamantopoulou, Monti and Solbes, as well as the President) should discuss the situation and focus on how to react to the American decision, before the weekly session of the College, at the end of which the Commissioner responsible for commercial affairs, Pascal Lamy, should hold a press conference. But in Prodi's letter and, previously, the Union had already announced the colour: it wants the market to remain open and competition conditions to remain fair. For their part, Europeans know, through experience, to what extent restructuring is a delicate and painful business and it is true that they have used aid to organise and support the process (which the Commission has already said it was prepare to tolerate on the part of the American public authorities, notably in the framework of the last "steel" session of the IECD: Ed.). But whatever the circumstances, and even in the 70s and 80s, when most of the effort was made, the European market always remained open and competition was preserved, due to the provisions of the ECSC Treaty, Prodi recalls.