Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-223"
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"en.20020702.10.2-223"2
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".
In response to the protectionist measures taken by the United States, the European Union has put in place a three-pronged strategy, whose aim is to enforce respect for our rights within the multilateral trading system. The first point is to bring action before the WTO seeking condemnation of the American measures; the second point is to adopt a European safeguard designed to maintain access to the European market whilst protecting it from trade flows which, without access to the US market, would stream back to the European market; the third point is to demand compensation from the United States for the losses suffered by European exporters as a result of the American measures, which is in line with our understanding of the WTO texts on safeguard clauses.
We have not yet imposed additional customs duties on American products, but we now have a Council regulation that was adopted on 13 June 2002 and which gives the Union the option of suspending tariff charges, to use the appropriate language of the WTO, on certain American products, as of the 18 June 2002.
Our main objective is to obtain, in the short term, an exclusion and/or compensation package, which may mean further time will need to be spent at the negotiating table, and we shall, as agreed with the Council, report back before 19 July on the progress made on this issue. In the light of this report and our recommendations, a decision may or may not be taken to impose additional duties on a limited number of American products, to a value of approximately EUR 400 million.
This regulation will impose increases in custom duties on a trade amount equivalent to the loss incurred, in other words for a much greater amount, of more than EUR 2 billion, if the United States do not withdraw their measures after they have been condemned by the WTO, which means towards the middle of 2003.
The question is; what is the impact of the American measures on employment? An assessment of the impact of the American measures on employment in the steel manufacturing industry in Europe is both difficult and premature. Difficult because the American measures only have a limited life span and because, following the increase in steel prices in the United States and elsewhere, European steel companies tend to delay their reaction to events for several months and continue, therefore, to employ workers whom they have trained and who are competent and productive. Premature because the impact will depend on the level of exemptions that we obtain from the American Administration and also on the openings that European steel industries find in other markets for products that are banned from sale in the United States. This being the case, it is clear that European steel companies that must pay these customs duties – which can increase prices by up to 30% – are at a huge disadvantage compared to companies that do not have to pay them. At this stage, therefore, we cannot give any more statistics. We do not have any specific statistics on the impact of the American measures in each Member State, since this is managed at Union level and since our partners in dialogue are the steel companies, most of which are now based in several European countries. Paradoxically, it is in the United States where the impact on employment risks being acute, particularly in the sectors of the American economy that use steel and which will probably be the most affected in the short term, due to their inability to pass price increases onto their own customers or due to the fact that such a situation will lead these customers to look to other continents."@en1
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