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| U.S. Makes Submissions to World Trade Organization |
| Contact: Richard Mills, Ricardo Reyes | (202) 395-3230 |
03/19/2003 |
WASHINGTON - The
United States today submitted two papers to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
that make the case for strengthening global trade rules against unfair trade
practices, such as providing government subsidies to industries, and dumping -
selling goods at unfairly low prices.
"These papers outline a progressive
approach for strengthening rules against the unfair subsidies that too often
distort the terms of competition faced by U.S. companies. The rules of the game
must be fair," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "Both papers
make it abundantly clear that the underlying principles of the unfair trade
rules must not only be preserved, but also advanced, to secure the economic
interests of American families, farmers and workers in an international
marketplace."
The U.S. papers will be
presented to the WTO Rules Negotiating Group, which is part of the ongoing WTO
talks within the Doha Development Agenda. Included in the subsidy submission
("Subsidy Disciplines Requiring Clarification and Improvement") as issues for
consideration by the Rules Negotiating Group are:
-
prohibition of
additional types of subsidies – such as government debt-forgiveness,
-
tougher rules
for government loans and investment in private sector companies, and
-
market prices
for government sales of natural resources, such as timber and natural
gas.
In the other
submission ("Identification of Certain Major Issues Under the Antidumping and
Subsidies Agreements"), issues raised include:
-
the special
needs of producers of seasonal and cyclical agricultural products, due to their
shorter growing seasons and perishable products, and
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the problem of
persistent dumped and subsidized imports – as experienced by our steel industry
over the years.
The negotiations
are centered around antidumping and subsidy/countervailing duty rules. The WTO
allows importing countries to impose antidumping duties where an imported
product is sold at less than the price for the same product in the exporter's
home market, thereby injuring a domestic industry. Similarly, the WTO allows
importing countries to impose countervailing duties to offset subsidies provided
by foreign governments to benefit imported goods that injure a domestic
industry.
Separately, the
United States also presented to the WTO Rules Negotiating Group a paper that
advocates stronger global trade rules governing subsidies for the fisheries
industry, to remedy the economic and environmental damage from over-fishing. The
United States is working closely on the fisheries subsidies initiative with a
broad coalition of developed and developing countries, including Australia,
Chile, Ecuador, Iceland, New Zealand, Peru and the
Philippines.
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