AWPA Wireline - August 2003

The European Commission (EC) announced that it plans to take the United States to the WTO over the way that the US calculates antidumping duties. According to the European Union, the US practice, called "zeroing," has resulted in higher antidumping penalties on hundreds of millions of dollars of EU exports to the US each year.

• PC Steel Wire Strand Being Dumped

The Commerce Department announced preliminary antidumping duties on prestressed concrete steel wire strand from five countries, ranging from 11.52% to 118.75% (Prestressed Concrete Steel Wire Strand from Brazil, India, Mexico, Korea and Thailand). Preliminary antidumping duties against these countries will only be finalized if Commerce's final dumping determination is affirmative and if the International Trade Commission funds that the dumped imports are materially injuring or threatening material injury to a US industry.

• FSC Fix Likely Phased Out

The USTR General Counsel John Veroneau acknowledged that legislation to repeal a tax break for exporters would have to include a transition period to phase out the benefit. But that phase out period should not exceed one or two years because any longer period could cause the European Union - which won a WTO case against the US tax system - to retaliate against US exports.

Veroneau added that if Congress does not act on the tax break issue by the end of this congressional session, there is a high likelihood that the EU will retaliate. He concluded that passage of a bill by one or both chambers would constitute "serious progress" even if the two chambers produce sharply contrasting proposals.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said it is still his goal to introduce a bipartisan bill with the panel's ranking Democrat Max Baucus (D-MT).

• USTR Requests More Funding

A push by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and its congressional allies to secure a funding boost of around 20% above fiscal year 2003 levels has gained traction in the House, but a similar increase may be more difficult in the Senate. The House Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee gave USTR a total of just under $42 million - $7 million more than last year, and $5 million more than the president asked for in his fiscal year 2004 budget request. Of that increase, $2 million would be set aside for nine additional employees to ensure China is meetings its WTO accession commitments, including a full-time staff member in USTR's Geneva Office dedicated to China issues.

However, despite dogged efforts by USTR to make the case for an increase, a Senate appropriations aide was skeptical they would achieve it.

• EPA Proposes To Raise Fines

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to increase the maximum penalties for civil violations of environmental laws by almost 15%. EPA said it was making the change to account for inflation. If finalized after a 30-day comment period, the increase would be the first since 1997.

Under the proposal, fines would range from $750 to $250,000 per violation. Those charged with multiple violations of environmental laws and regulations could face fines that could add up to millions of dollars.

• Toxic Emissions Decrease In 2001

Toxic emissions from industrial facilities into the nation's air, water and land declined steeply in 2001, the EPA reported recently in its annual tally of hazardous chemical released by industries. According to the agency's annual Toxic Release Inventory, total releases of chemicals decline by 1.05 billion pounds in 2001, a 15.5% decrease from the 6.76 billion pounds released in 2000. Since EPA first began requiring industry to report toxic releases in 1988, those releases have declined by 54.5%, but the decrease reported for 2001 represents the largest reduction in pollution since 1989.

Looking at all chemical releases, approximately 27% of chemicals were released to the air; 4% to water; 4% to underground injection on-and off-site; and 65% to land on- and off-site. Releases from chemical manufacturing industries accounted for 9.5% of all releases - about 94.7 million pounds - down 14.5% from 2000.

This year's report includes data that reflects a new 100-pound threshold for reporting of lead and lead compounds - previously facilities only reported for lead if they manufactured or processed over 25,000 pounds or used over 10,000 pounds. Because of this reporting change, the total lead releases increased by 69 million pounds from 374 million pounds to 443 million pounds.

The TRI data and background information can be found at www.epa.gov/tri. For more information, contact EPA's Suzanne Ackerman at 202-564-7819, or via email at ackerman.suzanne@epa.gov.

TRADE LEGISLATION

• Reform Bill Would Strengthen US Trade Laws

House Steel Caucus Chairman Phil English (R-PA) - along with Reps. Sander Levin (D-MI), Amo Houghton (R-NY), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) - introduced a bill entitled the "Trade Law Reform Act of 2003" (HR 2365) to beef up US trade laws. The proposal would:

• Establish a WTO review commission to analyze decisions against US interests and advise Congress if the WTO overstepped its mandate in the ruling. The commission would be made up of five current or retired federal judges.

• Amend US antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard laws to ensure that the ITC can address situations where price suppression - rather than increased imports - is a key factor. The measure would also require the ITC to evaluate whether a US industry finds itself in a vulnerable position as a result of factors including a previous wave of unfairly traded imports.

• Make the current ad hoc steel monitoring and notification program permanent.

• Modify the safeguard statute (Section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act) to replace the current high standard for demonstrating a causal link between increased imports and serious injury to a US industry with a less stringent, but WTO-consistent, standard.

• Make it more difficult for the president to deny import relief when the ITC has recommended it.

• Improve rules on the circumvention of AD/CVD orders.

The legislation was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

• Bayh Bill Would Block Free Trade Deals

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) introduced legislation (S 1258) that would restrict the White House from entering into new free trade agreements if an independent panel of federal judges found a pattern of anti-US bias in WTO rulings. The measure would face fierce opposition from the Bush Administration which would see its ability to negotiate free trade agreements limited. Securing fast track authority was a major victory for the Bush Administration, and the White House is unlikely to react favorably to a bill that would unravel some of that new authority.