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The European Union says its patience is running out with the United States over two long-running trade disputes involving steel and company tax breaks. After two days of talks in Washington, the EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy warned that Europe would not hesitate to retaliate against more than six billion dollars of US exports if the US did not comply with World Trade Organisation rulings. "For those who remain interested in the simpler question which is whether Europe will or will not retaliate: the answer is yes if the US does not move to comply with these clearly recognised deadlines," Mr Lamy said.
At the centre of the dispute are steep US tariffs on foreign steel and tax breaks the US government has been handing out to large exporters such as Boeing. The WTO has ruled that both violate international trade rules. The EU has drawn up a hit list of US products including fruit and textiles, saying sanctions against these products could be imposed from mid-December.
[Source: Euronews.net]
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