The European Union Monday bitterly denounced the Clinton Administration for doubling the tariffs on selected European-made goods.
At a special meeting of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, EU Trade Ambassador Roderick Abbot accused the U.S. of “declaring war” on its European trading partners in its dispute over banana import quotas.
The Clinton Administration’s action is to protest the EU’s policy of favoring British and French owned companies over their U.S. counterparts in connection with Europe’s importing of bananas. On March 3 the U.S. government doubled the import taxes on Irish linens, Scotch-made woolens, German-made papers and coffee makers, cheeses from Italy and Greece, and assorted baked goods, many of which are offered by U.S. direct marketers and catalogers.
That action, done without the approval of the WTO, Abbot said has effectively stopped the flow of those items into the U.S. from Europe. He charged the U.S. with “declaring war” on any of its European trading partners for disagreeing with it on certain trade issues.
Denying the allegation, U.S. Trade Ambassador Rita Hayes, said that the U.S. was “completely within its rights” to act as it did because the EU refused to alter its unfair banana import policy.
Although the issues is before the WTO’s trade dispute panel, both sides were urged by WTO Director General Renato Ruggiero to “find a mutually agreed solution to their problems [as] their credibility is at stake if they don’t act in conformity with the letter and spirit” of the WTO’s rules.
