Brussels, 16/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the World Trade Organisation finally received petitions from eight of the eleven countries which were successful in their dispute over the Byrd Amendment of the United States. From Washington, a new case has been announced.
Outside the Union (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10), Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil, Chile and Mexico have notified the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of their willingness to reserve their right to penalise the maintaining of this legislation in place, should the case arise, as its illegality was established a year ago. Their petitions came the day after the American Congress refused to repeal or modify the Byrd amendment within the deadlines set, stressed a source in Ottawa. The DSB will examine them in a special session called for 26 January. In the meantime, the US Trade Representative made a formal statement via his advisor general, John Veroneau, in which he confirms the American objective, whilst promising that the government will continue to "work with Congress to bring [American legislation] into line with the WTO verdict this year". "We appreciate the good will of certain plaintiffs to give us extra time to fulfil this objective" (Australia, Thailand, Indonesia: Ed), "the compensation sought by other plaintiffs does not seem to be based on the actual damage to their exports", said the Trade Representative. He added: "as a result, we are contesting the proposed compensation, by sending the case back to arbitration"- a procedure which normally takes longer than the prescribed sixty days. Until then, the plaintiffs should make preparations, and define the level of penalties and the list of American export products which may be targeted. The payments received by the American producers under the Byrd Amendment (which allows those involved in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy proceedings to receive part of the surtaxes paid by their rivals, if found guilty) were put at 231 million dollars in 2001, 330 million in 2002 and around 280 million in 2003 (pending definitive data), a Canadian source said on Friday.