WHO veroordeelt Amerikaanse anti-dumpingwetgeving (en)

The World Trade Organisation on Tuesday (31 August) gave the green light to the EU and seven other countries to impose sanctions on the US for its anti-dumping law.

Under the Byrd amendment, named after its sponsor Senator Robert Byrd, the US fines companies which dump goods and then gives the money to the companies who complained about the dumping.

EU Trade Commission Pascal Lamy welcomed the decision.

"It is clear that the Byrd Amendment is a WTO-incompatible response to dumping and subsidisation and must therefore go".

"I hope the US will now take action to remove this measure, thus avoiding the risk of sanctions", he said.

However, the EU still has to decide whether it will actually impose sanctions.

Reacting to the decision, the US said it would continue to watch out for unfairly subsidized trade.

"Today's determination will not affect the ability of the United States to continue enforcing its trade laws to impose duties on countries that sell unfairly dumped or subsidized products in the US market", said Christopher Padilla, spokesman for the US Trade Representative's office.

"Some foreign countries claimed that U.S. trade laws like the Byrd Amendment

cause them significant economic damage, but the panel of arbitrators at the WTO agreed with the United States that those claims were grossly exaggerated", he continued.

The EU - along with Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico and South Korea - had complained to the WTO because Washington had not repealed the legislation by 27 December last year - the deadline set by the world trade body.

Under the law, around 561 million dollars (463.2 million euro) was given to US companies in 2001 and 2002.