Brussels, 08/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Despite reservation recently shown by the United Kingdom, Germany and even more openly by Sweden, the European Commission secured the unanimous "green light" on Tuesday from the Fifteen to move ahead with its defensive and dissuasive strategy faced with the almost closed American steel market. The same day, it formally asked, on behalf of the Union, for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to hand an arbitration panel the care of checking the legality of the safeguard device that the United States put in place on 20 March to protect an industry losing speed faced with the competition of foreign steel.
This request, which comes at the end of the 60 days of consultations in view of an amicable solution, will be submitted for initial discussions in Geneva on 22 May. The United States will only, however, be able to counter this request once - and will probably do so, so much so that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body will doubtless decide to set up a panel at the following meeting (the date of which has not yet been set). For its part, the European Union has now regained its coherence on the "sanctions" chapter of its strategy that seemed threatened for some weeks by doubts on the part of most Member States as to the appropriateness of implementing immediate retaliatory measures - that is to say, from 18 June, without waiting to know the panel's ruling on the American restrictions. A certain number of "misunderstandings" have been dissipated, Commission sources explained following the decisive discussions within the 133 Committee. In that context, the Fifteen were able to assure themselves that the preparatory procedure would continue to progress step-by-step and that "the fundamental objective is to secure an early lifting of the American measures" before "providing unanimous support to the Commission's strategy aimed at responding to the illegal safeguard measures taken by the United States" - or "all the objective and actions proposed" by the Commission - and to back the two lists of products that could be sanctioned that must be submitted to Geneva by 17 May, to reserve the right to retaliate. The reason for the first list, a short list relating to a commercial value of some 360 to 365 million euro, is above all to step up the pressure on Washington to secure compensations for which the Union believes it has the right. For now, the Bush Administration has not said "no" even if it considers in absolute terms that such a "concession" is not required, and talks will take their course, no doubt until 18 June. We note that, on the European side, there is now talk of seeking an agreement with the United States which not only includes compensation but also the exclusion of products from the scope of the American safeguards, according to the consensual report on the deliberations between the Council and Commission. Beyond this date and in the hypothesis of a failure, the Commission should return before the Council with a proposal of regulation in good and due form before being able to put the threat of sanctions into practice, that is, proceed to the suspension of trade concessions made earlier to the United States. The second list, which is clearly more substantial and longer term, aims at a little less than EUR 600 million in American exports.
The American side continues to show confidence and to place the Union on guard against any hasty action that could be but "unilateral", that is, counter to the rules of the multilateral game. Josette Shiner, who works with the US Trade Representative, said in a brief press release published on Tuesday evening that the US is confident reason will prevail outside Brussels and that the Member States will end up supporting observance of WTO rules and rejecting the unilateral solution. There is no imminent deadline, she insisted, saying that the US has offered all the countries concerned three years more in which to put their arguments forward. She concluded saying that the "United States has acted according to WTO rules and expects others to do the same".