The US was poised on Tuesday night to launch a fresh trade dispute against the European Union over tariffs on several technology products such as flat-screen monitors and printers.
People familiar with the matter said the US was preparing to file the case at the World Trade Organisation, with an announcement to come as early as Wednesday, barring an 11th-hour change of heart. The dispute centres on the EU’s interpretation of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a decade-old, 70-nation pact, which prohibits countries from imposing tariffs on many high-tech products. Washington says the EU is violating the ITA by placing tariffs of 14 per cent on items such as large flat-screen monitors and cable television set-top boxes, and tariffs of 6 per cent on multi-function printers.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which executes trade policy for the Bush administration, said it would hold a press briefing on Wednesday in Washington regarding the EU and the ITA. But a spokesman declined to comment on whether a case was imminent. Calls for comment from the EU delegation to the US were not returned. John Neuffer, vice-president of the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents large US technology groups such as Cisco and Hewlett-Packard in Washington, said: “If a case is filed, it will hopefully steer the EU in the direction of stopping [violation of] the letter and the spirit of the ITA.” As the prospects of a trade dispute with the EU over the ITA have grown, so has speculation that other leading technology producers, such as Japan, may flank the US in its case. The Japanese embassy in Washington declined to comment.
The possible launch of a case against the EU over the ITA comes as the Bush administration is facing increased pressure from US lawmakers to be tougher in its enforcement of trade law. “[The] USTR can and should do more,” said Max Baucus, Democratic chairman of the Senate finance committee, at a hearing on trade enforcement last week. Warren Maruyama, the USTR general counsel, told the panel: “We completely agree that effective enforcement has to be a very high priority ... There’s no blockage or hesitation or cold feet about going after our trading partners.” If the US were to file a WTO case against the EU over the ITA, it would start a 60-day consultation period, during which the sides would try to reach a settlement before the case moved to a dispute panel. In March, the US and EU joined forces to file a WTO claim against China for what they saw as unfair restrictions on providers of financial information.
Financial Times
