WTO ruled against US S201 steel safeguard measures

WTO ruled against US S201 steel safeguard measures

The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) decided that steel safeguard measures implemented by the Bush administration to protect the domestic steel industry do violate the international trading rules. The case was initiated by the requests of EU, Japan, South Korea, China, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway and Brazil in 2002. The dispute settlement body ruled that countries are allowed to extend temporary protection to industries hit by import competition, however only under strict rules. And the 295 new exclusions granted under S201 sanctions were not satisfactory enough to change the DSB ruling. This WTO finding is an interim ruling, to be followed by the final one next month. As it is very rare that an interim decision is reversed, the final decision will most probably be in line with this interim decision. US authorities are expected to appeal this decision for which they have time until the end of this year. However, the final decision of the WTO is commonly believed to be ordering the US to lift these sanctions entirely.