Prolonged Lawsuits for Years but Settlements Are Still Far Away

In terms of the U.S. decision to impose additional tariffs on the imported steels, the `steel war field` is changed to WTO by the decision of the related countries such as Korea and EU that they will file a lawsuit against the U.S.

Japan already accused the U.S. to WTO, rejecting to accept the anti-dumping tariff by the U.S. on carbon steels. Canada also decided to file a lawsuit against the U.S. concerning the U.S.`s anti-dumping tariffs on the coniferous tree timbers on 6th besides the steel problems.

By the rush of lawsuits, it is expected that WTO will be put in put in perplexity. David Woods, a researcher of WTO, anticipated at his interview with AFP, “the credibility built up by the Doha Ministerial Meeting in November last year may be broken down by this trade conflicts.”

U.S. and WTO Lawsuits: According to WTO, since the launch of WTO in March 1995, the total lawsuits filed in WTO concerning unfair trade among the member countries numbered 245. Among them, 126 cases are related with the U.S. The U.S. filed 69 lawsuits against other countries and also accused by other countries in terms of 58 cases. The U.S. filed a lawsuit against Japan to WTO concerning imported apples.

It is not a few cases that the U.S. lost the lawsuits. Korea won the case about the U.S.`s urgent implementation of the safe guard against the carbon steel pipes imported from Korea in February and the anti-dumping decision of the U.S. on the stainless steel produced in Korea, December 2000. EU also won a lawsuit against the U.S. concerning the U.S.`s agricultural product subsidy that had been a chronic conflict for 20 years in January and EU is allowed to impose 4 billion dollars of retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. WTO has judged the U.S. export subsidy as illegal four times for past 5 years.

Process In the Future: When a complaint is filed in WTO, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) leads a negotiation between the related countries for 60 days. When the negotiation did not work, it sets for a deliberation. The involved countries form a panel composed of 3 people, who have different nationalities, through a discussion. If they fail to form a panel, the Secretary General of WTO appoints the panelists. And the panel must submit the final report to clarify the right and wrong in 6 months.

The report is to be the final judgment of DSB as long as all member countries did not reject the report unanimously. The related country can appeal for the second deliberation. The upper deliberation organization may change or withdraw the decision of the panel through 60-90 day deliberation. All the process is to be completed in 1 year and 3 months but it actually takes 2-3 years because the regulations are not obligatory.

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