Steel dispute between the European Union and the United States

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The steel dispute between the European Union and the United States of America describes a reciprocal protectionist foreign trade policy in which the counterparties impose protective or retaliatory tariffs on steel imports and other goods from each other's economic area .

Steel dispute 2002/2003

trigger

According to Section 201 Trade Act of 1974, US President George W. Bush , effective March 20, 2002, placed protective measures up to 30% on certain steel imports with an initial period of validity of three years. According to Art. 201 of the US Trade Act, US industry associations can obtain import restrictions if they can prove that the existence of domestic companies is endangered by the imports. The measures affected around half of all American steel imports. Since the focus of delivery from Europe was on the flat products particularly affected and the EU is the largest steel exporter on the American market, almost 70% of EU steel exports to the USA were affected.

The European trade association Eurofer then tried, together with the German federal government, to obtain exceptions - so-called "product exclusions" - from the tariffs in the USA. For a period of 200 days, the EU Commission initially stipulated certain quantities for 15 product categories, over which a 25% duty would be due. A flooding of the EU market as a result of the extensive isolation of the American steel market should be prevented.

The EU Commission, together with Japan, Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand, then launched arbitration proceedings before the WTO with the aim of abolishing American measures and liberalizing imports of other goods to compensate for the protective measures taken.

backgrounds

The USA justified the partial increase in protective tariffs by up to 30% with the unforeseeable consequences of the Asian crisis , which began in 1997 and led to an increase in cheap imports of steel products that were no longer marketable in Asia. The EU, Japan and a few other countries rejected this line of argument on the grounds that the crisis had already weakened in early 2001. According to the WTO statutes, protective tariffs are only possible within narrow limits.

In fact, there have been signs of a crisis in the American steel industry since the 1960s, with considerable job cuts in the 1980s, which practically halved the total number of employees. In addition, the steel dispute had a global dimension in the form of global overcapacity . After all, it had a domestic political dimension, which was related to both the President's attempt to obtain a trade promotion authority from Congress and the short-term election prospects of Republican MPs in the constituencies of the so-called Rust Belt and the long-term election prospects of the President self.

WTO arbitration award

The WTO arbitration tribunal ruled in favor of the complainants on November 10, 2003.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) have the gem. Art. XIX 1a GATT necessary "unexpected developments" not adequately presented, which could justify the protective measures taken in favor of the US economy. The threat to the domestic economy, which is also required under the Safeguards Agreement , from imports that distort competition has not been proven. In addition, it is not understandable why the USA had excluded the member states of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Mexico and Canada as well as Israel and Jordan from the measures. The measures are inadmissible as a violation of the liberal WTO trade rules.

After the dollar gave way and the auto industry in particular complained about higher material prices and around 200,000 jobs in the American steel industry had been lost, President Bush lifted the punitive tariffs. He had to be accused of capitulating to "European blackmail".

Trade dispute 2017/2018

The dispute over the review of American steel imports announced by US President Donald Trump in mid-2017 could be settled amicably. [outdated]

literature

  • Oliver Schmidt: Between protectionism and globalization - the steel dispute between the USA and the EU. In: Michael H. Stierle (Ed.): Global and Monetary Economy: Festschrift for Dieter Duwendag; with 16 tables. Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg 2003, pp. 223-242. ISBN 3790800481

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TRADE ACT OF 1974 US House of Representatives website , accessed July 25, 2018
  2. ↑ Wolf Schäfer: Protection and counter-protection - a negative sum game in: Import quotas and protective tariffs: Is there a threat of a trade war between the EU and the USA? ifo Schnelldienst 10/2002, p. 8 ff.
  3. ↑ Dieter Ameling: Protective tariffs on American steel imports - President Bush's game with fire in: Import quotas and protective tariffs: Is there a threat of a trade war between the EU and the USA? ifo Schnelldienst 10/2002, p. 3 f.
  4. ^ Bernhard Zangl: The internationalization of the rule of law. Dispute settlement in GATT and WTO . Frankfurt / M. 2006, p. 153 Google Books
  5. ↑ Andreas Falke: Background to the steel conflict between the EU and the USA in: Import quotas and protective tariffs: Is a trade war threatened between the EU and the USA? ifo Schnelldienst 10/2002, p. 5 ff.
  6. ↑ Dispute Settlement 252: United States - Definitive Safeguard Measures on Imports of Certain Steel Products Website of the WTO, accessed on July 25, 2018 (English)
  7. ↑ Article XIX: Emergency Action on Imports of Particular Products The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947), WTO website, accessed on July 25, 2018 (English)
  8. ↑ Agreement on Safeguards website of the WTO, accessed on July 25, 2018 (English)
  9. ↑ US - STEEL SAFEGUARDS (DS248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 258, 259) WTO Dispute Settlement: One-Page Case Summaries, accessed on July 25, 2018 (English)
  10. ↑ World trade: USA lose steel dispute with EU Der Spiegel , July 11, 2003
  11. ^ Steel dispute: Victory for the EU n-tv , July 11, 2003
  12. ^ Defeat for the USA in the steel dispute with the EU Handelsblatt , November 10, 2003
  13. ↑ Steel dispute of 2002: When President Bush gave in to pressure from Europe, Industriemagazin , March 9, 2018
  14. ↑ Henrike Rossbach: The steel dispute with America is escalating, FAZ , June 19, 2017
  15. ^ Winand von Petersdorff: Trade war on ice. In: FAZ.net . Retrieved July 26, 2018 .
  16. ↑ USA and EU: But no star wars? Time , July 11, 2018