That pesky trade business

More good news for the steel industry...

The European Union will move quickly to impose economic sanctions on the United States if it receives a favorable ruling next week from the World Trade Organization in a bitter trade dispute involving steel, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Tuesday.

"If the United States does not move, retaliation is a racing certainty in mid-December," Lamy said in a speech to a Washington audience following two days of discussions with the Bush administration and congressional leaders.

The EU has threatened to impose $2.2 billion in sanctions on U.S. imports to Europe if the United States does not remove steep tariffs on various types of foreign steel that President Bush imposed in March 2002 in an effort to give the beleaguered domestic industry breathing room to reorganize.

Economic sanctions. Isn't that something reserved for the bad guys?

The EU drew up its $2.2 billion hit list of U.S. products with the goal of maximizing the political pain for Republicans, targeting Harley Davidson motorcycles produced in Wisconsin, textile products from the Southeast and citrus products from Florida.

D'oh! Not Harleys!

On another bitter trade dispute, Lamy also said that the EU would impose up to $4 billion in sanctions starting in March if the U.S. Congress has not repealed by the end of this year a tax break for U.S. corporations that the World Trade Organization has ruled is an illegal export subsidy.

Now, that's gonna be a little trickier. We might pull the plug on the steel industry - it's on life support anyway. But repeal that corporate tax break?

What am I saying? We can just bomb Old Europe. Hey! Maybe that's what those warplanes over Scotland are cranking up for!

Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, said the United States should not buckle to the threats. "Given the fragility of the WTO system and of trans-Atlantic relationships, it is highly counterproductive for U.S.-EU issues to be handled through saber-rattling by the EU," Levin said.

Those bad, bad Europeans. (Given the fragility of the Iraqi system and of MidEast-West relationships, however, it turns out saber rattling was highly productive for handling U.S.-oil issues.)

On the tax dispute, both House and Senate committees have passed legislation that would replace the WTO-illegal export subsidy with a different type of tax break for U.S. companies.

Oh. But of course.

Well, then. To what's left of the steel industry: Be seein' ya.

(You can always join the army.)

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