Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 24 • 26th June 2002
Three more on board against US steel tariffs
DSB UPDATE
At a 24 June meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the body approved requests by China, Norway and Switzerland to be included in a panel established last week at the request of the EC, Japan and S. Korea.(see BRIDGES Weekly, 20 June 2002). The complaints, which target US steel safeguard tariffs imposed on 20 March, will be heard in one panel. The US reiterated its claim that its safeguards were fully compliant with WTO rules. Brazil and New Zealand are also expected to join the complainant parties later in the summer. The approval of China’s bid for a panel ruling on the steel tariffs is the first dispute settlement case initiated by China since it joined the WTO in December last year.
Canada-Brazil aircraft
With regard to the long and bitter row between Canada and Brazil over aircraft subsidies (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 February 2002), the DSB decided to set up an arbitration panel to evaluate Brazil’s request to impose retaliatory sanctions against Canada. At the meeting, Brazil asked for approval to withdraw trade concessions totalling USD 3.36 billion as an "appropriate counter-measures" against Canada. According to Brazil, Canada had failed to implement the findings of an independent WTO team of experts that loans provided to the Quebec-based jet maker, Bombardier Inc., were illegal. The Canadian delegation countered by saying that the amount of damages claimed by Brazil "was inflated, unjustified and invalid". India-US textiles
The DSB also approved the creation of a new panel over India’s complaints that the US was blocking its exports of textiles and clothing with "complicated new rules." In India’s view, the new rules, brought in after previous EU complaints, had created "extraordinarily complex rules of origin for textiles and apparel products" which were used "as instruments to pursue trade objectives" and that the rules were having "restrictive, distorting and disruptive effects on international trade". The US rejected the accusations, arguing that the regulations were fully in line with WTO rules. Developing country trade diplomats said the regulations were only the latest in a range of barriers put up by the US, where they said lobbyists for textile manufacturers and workers are strong compared with the voice of exporters from poorer countries. The panel is expected to be created within the next month and will have six months to come up with a ruling.
ICTSD reporting; "China, Switzerland join WTO steel case against US," REUTERS, 24 June 2002; "WTO Sets Up Arbitration Panel In Brazil, Canada Dispute," ASSOCIATED PRESS, 24 June 2002; "WTO sets panel in India textile row with U.S.," REUTERS, 24 June 2002.