That pesky trade business is about to get peskier

Following up on my earlier post about Europe's threat to impose sanctions on the U.S. over steel tariffs, the WTO gave the nod in a ruling favoring Europe.

The World Trade Organization issued a final ruling Monday that the steel tariffs imposed by President Bush violate international trade rules...That leaves Bush with an unpleasant political choice. If he abides by the WTO ruling and rolls back the steel tariffs, he may anger voters in key steel making states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. But if he maintains the tariffs, he risks courting the wrath of industries in other states that would be hurt by the retaliatory duties.

...The White House has...failed to reap some of the political benefits it hoped to get from the tariffs. For example; the United Steelworkers of America has endorsed Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) for president and issued a statement saying any of the Democratic candidates would be preferable to "the reactionary policies of the current administration." article

As if the poor man doesn't have enough to worry about. He may be needing all of that "just watch" money after all.

The previous post quoted an article saying the EU's sanctions were designed "with the goal of maximizing the political pain for Republicans", such as targeting the Florida citrus industry. We shall see. EU has set December 20 as the date by which U.S. tariffs must be lifted to avoid retaliatory sanctions.

Asian steel producers won a steel tariff argument at the WTO in July. article The U.S. appealed the decision, and this is the WTO's response. WTO members must adopt the final decision within 30 days for it to be effective.

South Korea had joined the EU-led legal protest [against] Washington's safeguard measures [for the U.S. steel industry] along with Brazil, China, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.

The eight countries threatened Monday that they could take retaliatory "re-balancing" measures unless Washington terminates its safeguard measures. article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.