Brussels, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - As EUROPE had predicted (EUROPE of 9/10 September, p.14, and also yesterday, p.9), the United States is to appeal the decision of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) establishing the illegal nature of provisions that have, for the past two years, allowed repayment to US producers of the proceeds from punitive surcharges imposed on foreign competitors. "We do not agreement with the conclusions reached by a group of experts and we intend to appeal their decision", said a spokesperson to the Trade Representative. Washington has 60 days in which to do this.
Challenged by the Union and by ten other countries, the Law 2000 on compensation for continued dumping and payment of subsidies, better known as the "Byrd Amendment", provides for the government to pay the proceeds of punitive levies to companies that initiated or contributed to the updating of unfair practices, in order to help to cover certain costs, including investment granted in new production or technological installations. Hence the incentive effect of this Law on producers which have every interest to submit or support complaints filed for dumping or subsidies, which experts considered ran counter to the spirit of international provisions requiring that the relevant authority should verify whether the grievances are founded and largely shared in the sector concerned. It is essentially on this point that the co-complainants, which include Canada, Japan, India, Australia, Brazil and Mexico (the only country whose complaint was rejected, as it failed to provide proof of direct injury), won the case in Geneva. They also argued about the fact that the redistribution of receipts doubled the "remedy" already procured for the industry through the imposition of anti-dumping or anti-subsidy duties on deliveries from incriminated foreign rivals. This year, it is the steel industry that enjoyed the large part of the redistribution carried out in January for a total of $207 million, it is noted in Brussels, where it is pointed out that this was only a first instalment, the second being programmed for the month of November.