Wto condemns United States for unfair competition

Renewed tension between the United States and the World Trade Organization (Wto) after the latter decided to impose new sanctions against a series of Us products for export.

The decision taken by the Wto comes in response to the failure by the government in Washington to repeal the amendment named after Byrd, the Democrat senator who proposed it. It is a regulation by which the United States not only imposes customs duty on the importation of certain goods which it considers to be sold below cost (pasta, steel, candles, seafood, ball bearings) withholding the duty as with any other tax, it also distributes the duty to the US companies operating in the same sectors.

In the four years since the Byrd amendment came in to force, the American Department of Trade has distributed around 700 million dollars to companies in the United States. The European Union, China and South Korea complained to the Wto, stating that the mechanism introduced in 2000 by the Us could be considered as unfair competition. In the appeal, the EU requested that retaliation duties should be applied to a vast range of Made in Usa products. There is a long list which includes almonds, skiing jackets, sunglasses and many others.

The Wto's decision was expected last Wednesday, but diplomatic authorities in Washington sought an in extremis agreement through a series of talks with the European Commission and Canada. As the talks also failed, Geneva give the green light to the retaliation duties.

(Source: Libero)