Brussels, 20/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has been asked to re-examine its safeguard measures taken last year against steel imports, to see whether the surcharges, decried the world over, have also harmed American steel-using industries, as they claim. The injunction, brought by Bill Thomas, the President of the Ways and Means Commission, is to give rise to an impact assessment of these measures on the "employment, wages, profitability, sales, productivity and investments" of these companies, the objective being to ask the ITC to determine whether to dismantle the safeguards as soon as possible (September), instead of maintaining them until their expiry in 2005. These degressive duties, which came into force just a year ago, will be reduced from Thursday onwards, with maximum rates dropping from 30% to 24%, and new exemptions are to be announced next week, an official American source indicates.