Zaid
Nov 24, 2004, 06:02 PM
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041124.wxrtrade1124/BNStory/Business/
Ottawa's announcement of the retaliation plan is a calculated move to try and persuade the United States to abandon the Byrd Amendment, a U.S. law that allows Washington to funnel to U.S. businesses the cash duties it extracts from foreign competitors.
Ottawa is not saying when it will make a decision on retaliation. One official said it could reserve its right to act for months or even years.
The World Trade Organization has ruled the Byrd Amendment is illegal, but the United States has ignored a WTO order to scrap it. In late August, Canada and seven other jurisdictions were given the right under global trade rules to retaliate against Washington for the law.
Yesterday, Ottawa released a list of 128 categories of goods totalling $5-billion in annual U.S. imports that it's considering targeting.
Its list of potential U.S. targets far exceeds Canada's retaliatory authority because it is trying to exert as much pressure as possible.
Canada can only slap prohibitive tariffs on roughly $10-million to $20-million of U.S imports annually in the short term, according to Canadian government estimates.
But if Washington starts funnelling to U.S. timber companies the $3.6-billion pot of duties it has collected from Canadian softwood firms in the last few years, the annual value of U.S. imports that Ottawa is allowed to hit with tariffs under WTO rules could soar into the billions of dollars.
Go Canada!!!
It does seem that the only way to get the US to the rightThing™ and get it to behave is to beat it over the head with an economic retaliation stick. (See the US, the EU and steel tariffs for another recent example)
Ottawa's announcement of the retaliation plan is a calculated move to try and persuade the United States to abandon the Byrd Amendment, a U.S. law that allows Washington to funnel to U.S. businesses the cash duties it extracts from foreign competitors.
Ottawa is not saying when it will make a decision on retaliation. One official said it could reserve its right to act for months or even years.
The World Trade Organization has ruled the Byrd Amendment is illegal, but the United States has ignored a WTO order to scrap it. In late August, Canada and seven other jurisdictions were given the right under global trade rules to retaliate against Washington for the law.
Yesterday, Ottawa released a list of 128 categories of goods totalling $5-billion in annual U.S. imports that it's considering targeting.
Its list of potential U.S. targets far exceeds Canada's retaliatory authority because it is trying to exert as much pressure as possible.
Canada can only slap prohibitive tariffs on roughly $10-million to $20-million of U.S imports annually in the short term, according to Canadian government estimates.
But if Washington starts funnelling to U.S. timber companies the $3.6-billion pot of duties it has collected from Canadian softwood firms in the last few years, the annual value of U.S. imports that Ottawa is allowed to hit with tariffs under WTO rules could soar into the billions of dollars.
Go Canada!!!
It does seem that the only way to get the US to the rightThing™ and get it to behave is to beat it over the head with an economic retaliation stick. (See the US, the EU and steel tariffs for another recent example)
