WTO announces final ruling opposing the US safeguard sanctions

WTO announces final ruling opposing the US safeguard sanctions

The WTO released a 1000 page ruling, explaining the aspects of the US safeguard sanctions violating the WTO rules. The ruling recommends that the US be asked to bring the sanctions in line with its obligations under the rules. Countries including Japan, the EU, South Korea, Norway, Switzerland, China, New Zealand and Brazil filed their complaints to the WTO with respect to these sanctions. WTO announced an interim ruling previously this year, stating that these sanctions are violating the global trading rules. With this final decision, the interim ruling has now become confirmed. On the other hand, the US officials always defend the three-year safeguard measures and insist on their necessity in order to protect their domestic industry from the surge of dumped imports during the period of restructuring. Soon as the ruling came in, US authorities immediately stated that they will appeal against this decision of the WTO in order to keep the tariffs in force. Meanwhile, the EU also stepped up its plans to limit the US imports into the Community markets. EU officials state that they are ready to slap retaliatory tariffs for a list of US goods worth around €1.9 billion in response to US sanctions. These retaliatory tariffs can be put into force if the US appeal is not filed within five days following the report being formally adopted by the WTO, which is expected to take place at the end of this month. In case the US appeals the decision, the ruling could be postponed until the end of this year.