U.S. lifts steel tariffs
Canadian Plastics
Facing the mounting threat of trade war, President George Bush has lifted tariffs on imported steel he imposed last year. The repeal on steel tariffs, which Canada was exempt from, came as the World T...
Facing the mounting threat of trade war, President George Bush has lifted tariffs on imported steel he imposed last year. The repeal on steel tariffs, which Canada was exempt from, came as the World Trade Organization authorized European and Asian nations to devise retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., less than one year before an election.
“Defiance had real costs,” one of Bush’s senior aids was quoted in the New York Times. “It was going to cost us exports and export jobs. It was going to cost us credibility around the world. It was going to put us at odds with Europe again.”
The United States wins many more cases that it loses at the W.T.O., an agency it helped create eight years ago to arbitrate disputes on global trade issues. Some news analysts felt that for the U.S. to ignore the steel ruling would be to invite Japan, China and other countries to ignore rulings in favor of Washington.
