The Hindu : Business : Japan slams punitive duty on U.S. exports

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005

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Business

Japan slams punitive duty on U.S. exports

`Levies would be in place as long as Washington maintains the 2000 law'

TOKYO: Japan decided on Monday to invoke countervailing import tariffs on U.S. ball bearing and steel products from Sept. 1, in response to a U.S. antidumping law which the World Trade Organization has ruled as being violative of WTO agreements.

In the first such measure Japan has ever taken against any trading partner, the country will slap a 15 per cent levy on 15 product items from the United States, including seven types of ball bearings and three types of steel products.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry issued a statement, saying, "Although we have repeatedly asked the U.S. to abolish the law, Congress has not discussed the bill yet, and possibilities are very low for the legislation to be scrapped within this fiscal year through September."

"We confirmed the need to put additional pressure on the U.S. Congress and strongly hope that Washington will take Japan's decision seriously and scrap the Byrd Amendment immediately," the statement said.

Vice Economy, Trade and Industry Minister, Hideji Sugiyama, said in a press conference that the levies would be in place as long as Washington maintains the 2000 law.

The retaliatory measure will effectively reduce the value of Japanese imports of the 15 U.S. products, also including a type of forklift truck and a type of printer, by about 5.6 billion yen ($50 million), he said.

Of the 15 products, 14 are currently imported duty free, while a 3.5 per cent tariff is imposed on the remaining one, which is a type of belting for transmissions or conveyers. The Byrd Amendment enables the U.S. federal government to pass on to affected industries the proceeds of anti-dumping duties.

— Xinhua

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