06/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Several MEPs immediately acted with indignation to the American decision to impose customs duties on steel imports, and called on Parliament to support any initiative Commissioner Lamy may take within the WTO (see pages 6 and 7). British Conservative Sir Robert Atkins, former minister for the steel industry, considers these measures to be against WTO rules, as the "causes of the US industry's problems are fundamentally internal". The CDU members Konrad Schwaiger and Christoph Konrad say (the former) that it is a "declaration of war" on Europeans and (the latter) that the measure reminds him of the embargo on the USSR "in the middle of the Cold War".