Japan Formalizes Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Ball Bearings, Steel
Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 12:00 CDT
Aug. 12--TOKYO -- Japan on Friday officially decided to slap a 15 percent retaliatory levy on U.S. ball bearing and steel products from Sept. 1, to counter a U.S. antidumping law which has been found to violate global trade rules, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.
The Cabinet approved a new ordinance to invoke the measures, he said. The trade minister denied there would be any significantly adverse effects on Japan-U.S. ties, saying Washington will see that Tokyo is simply following a decision at the World Trade Organization.
"The USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) has indicated that the United States needs to follow the WTO decision," Nakagawa said at a press conference. He added that Japan's action comes after similar measures taken by the European Union and Canada.
In the first such measure Japan has ever taken against any trading partner, it will slap countervailing tariffs on 15 product items from the United States, including seven types of ball bearing and three types of steel product, government officials said.
The retaliatory measure will effectively reduce the value of Japanese imports of the 15 U.S. products by about 5.6 billion yen, they said.
The U.S. law, known as the Byrd Amendment, allows antidumping duties collected by the U.S. government to be shared with domestic industries to help offset damage from cheap imports.
U.S. President George W. Bush has signaled willingness to review the law, but Congress has been reluctant.
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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo
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