Brussels, 09/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Geneva, the United States have been called upon to scrap its legislation that has allowed US companies for the past two years affected by unfair competition to be paid anti-dumping levies and compensation levied on their foreign competitors. Broadly challenged around the globe from Canberra to Brussels via Ottawa, the 2000 Law on compensation for continued dumping and the maintenance of subsidies, better known as the Byrd Amendment, has been found to be illegal by a panel of experts at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), confirming the information leaked in the summer (see Europe of 1 August). Once the ruling has been published, the US is planning to appeal.
Still confidential, the panel responsible for considering the combined appeals lodged by the EU, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, Indonesia, India and Thailand will not be publishing its ruling until next week, probably on the 16, 17 or 18 September. It will rule illegal the Amendment dealing with the continuation of unfair competition once it has been noted or once anti-dumping or anti-subsidy rulings have been published since this amounts in practice to doubling the tariff protection US companies already receive by adding subsidies to surcharges that already apply to their foreign competitors. These subsidies are not covered by either GATT or the WTO anti-dumping and anti-subsidies agreement but are paid by customs authorities redistributing import surcharges on an annual basis. The beneficiaries are the same companies that sparked off trade defence proceedings and have contributed to the implementation through their arguments. These subsidies provide a strong incentive for US producers to accuse foreign competitors of unfair competition and also act as a block on arrangements to settle the problem, argue the challengers.