The George W. Bush administration on Tuesday outlined its strategy for dealing with WTO rulings that have eroded the US' ability to impose import restrictions on products ranging from lamb meat to steel.
Angered by a series of decisions against US anti-dumping and other "trade remedy" laws, Congress gave the Bush administration until the end of last year to come up with a plan to reverse that trend and maintain the US' ability to act against what it determines are unfairly traded imports.
The demand reflected the strong view of outgoing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and many other lawmakers that WTO dispute settlement panels have overstepped their bounds by imposing obligations on the US that do not exist in WTO rules.
Baucus and the other lawmakers argue the WTO dispute-panel rulings upset the careful balance of trade concessions that the US and other countries negotiated in the 1994 Uruguay Round trade agreement that created the WTO.
In a statement, Baucus said he was encouraged by the executive branch report, but would still introduce legislation early next year to create a commission to oversee the WTO.
"I believe we must work in a bipartisan fashion to create a system that is fair and transparent, and I will make this a priority in the next Congress," Baucus said.
In its report, the Bush administration noted that the US has generally benefited from the WTO dispute settlement system, which has handled more than 275 cases since its inception seven years ago.
But the administration made clear it shared the view that some panels have gone too far in their rulings and warned that could jeopardize support for the WTO.
"If the perception develops that WTO panels and the [WTO] Appellate Body are substituting their own policy judgment for a negotiated balance of rights and obligations, then it will be difficult to maintain the support and confidence of member [countries] and the public," the report said.
The administration said it would press the issue in current world trade talks.
The US also will assert itself in individual cases now pending at the WTO to prevent further erosion of its ability to impose trade remedy measures, the report said.
The Bush administration said it has had some success on that front recently in a case involving US duties on German steel. A WTO appellate panel reverse an earlier ruling that US said imposed an obligation not in WTO rules.
However, the key test of the administration's effort in that area could come next spring, when the WTO is expected to issue its preliminary ruling on President George W. Bush's decision in March to slap tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports to help struggling US companies get back on their feet.
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