Michael C. Maibach, President & CEO

European-American Business Council
202-637-3444 ~ www.EABC.org

The European-American Business Council (EABC) applauds President Bush for removing the Section 201 Steel Safeguard Measures and for meeting U.S. obligations under the World Trade Organization rules-based trading system. The EABC believes that the interests of European and American companies, employees and consumers will best be served by compliance with WTO trade rules. The EABC welcomes the President’s decision also because it averted the threat of EU retaliatory sanctions worth $2.2 billion of US exports going to the European Union.

“We welcome the removal of the steel safeguard measures, thus making the imposition of sanctions by the European Union unnecessary,” said former EU and U.S. Ambassadors Hugo Paemen and Stuart Eizenstat. U.S. compliance with the WTO final ruling will help ease tensions in a Trans-Atlantic trade relationship already characterized by other high-stakes trade disputes. Abiding by the decision will also aid in ensuring the credibility of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. Finally, the end to the Trans-Atlantic disagreement over steel can aid the prospects of multilateral steel subsidies talks at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as both the EU and US have reaffirmed their commitment to an international steel initiative.

Major Trans-Atlantic disputes have raised the threat of unprecedented levels of trade retaliation (possible EU sanctions of $4 billion in the FSC/ETI case, $2.2 billion for steel tariffs). The U.S. request for a WTO dispute settlement panel on genetically modified organisms adds to an already disquieting situation. “President Bush’s action this week can only enhance the Trans-Atlantic business climate at a time when good news is especially welcome. As always, trade disputes risk distorting the conditions necessary for global companies to operate effectively, and are in the long run is detrimental to world trade and the consumers it serves,” commented Michael Maibach, EABC’s Managing Director.