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WASHINGTON / OSLO (Reuters) – The United States is requesting that the World Trade Organization dispute resolution panel be included in a dispute over international retaliation over U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, according to a US official acquaintance with the matter.
Ahead of the skulls at steel slab for storage at the Novolipetsk Steel PAO steel mill in Farrell, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 9, 2018. REUTERS / Aaron Josefczyk
The requests, filed on Thursday, cover tariffs by China, the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which followed the United States imposing a 25 percent duty on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, which it justified on national security grounds.
Canada, Mexico and China had also been prepared to make a WTO review by the tariffs. Earlier on Thursday, Norway said that it, the EU and other countries would seek the WTO dispute group's help.
Officials representing the countries' trade delegations could not be reached after normal business hours. The WTO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The dispute marks a new dimension to the ongoing skirmish between the United States and its trading partners as well as the WTO itself, where it has been blocked from new judges. The WTO is presiding over a record number of disputes, many of them triggered by Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum trade with China.
Norway prior to that initial consultation with the United States, and therefore the Nordic country, with the exception of the WTO.
"We believe that additional U.S. duty on steel and aluminum is contrary to WTO rules," Norwegian Foreign Minister Eriksen Soereide said in a statement.
"Therefore, together with the EU and several others, we are asking the WTO to establish a dispute resolution panel on the U.S. additional duty," she said.
In Brussels, meanwhile, the EU, Norway, and Switzerland, the global nuclear and global warming support for a global summit that included China, Japan and Russia as a counterbalance to a more protectionist United States.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Wednesday that it is expected to take a brief break, and he would like to make a substantial progress towards an agreement at an upcoming G20 meeting.
Despite striking a deal with Washington to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico and Canada remain subject to the tariffs.
On Tuesday, Cecilia Malmstrom holds talks with Ross in Brussels on improving trade relations, though Washington is in the middle of negotiations.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Tomasz Janowski
