NEWS: Canada And The EU To Impose Sanctions On US Goods

Beginning May 1, 2005, Canada will begin to impose a 15% surtax on the importation of live swine, cigarettes, oysters and certain fish from the US. The sanctions are in response to the failure of the US to comply with a 2003 WTO ruling which found that the Byrd Amendment violates US obligations under trade agreements. Eight members of the WTO have been given permission to impose these sanctions: Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, India, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. The EU is also expected to levy a surtax of approximately 15% on products such as paper, textiles, machinery and farm produce.



Hopefully, the decision of Canada and The European Union will spur the United States government to finally repeal the Byrd Amendment. It is one thing to levy a surtax on an import; it is a whole other thing to then turn around and give that money to the companies who lobbied for the surtax. When/if these duties are ever ordered to be returned, the money will be coming out of the pockets of the US taxpayers.

The Bush administration says that it is trying to work to repeal the Byrd Amendment, so that it will be in compliance with the WTO ruling, but they face strong opposition in congress.


Related News Links:
www.news.gc.ca
www.reuters.com
abcnews.go.com

sry brain fart..

[edit on 31-3-2005 by sardion2000]

The US will find a way to pass this SurTax onto the US People one way or another.

"What? Canada and Europe are emposing a 15% tax on US Goods." "Raise the National Gas Tax another 18% to cover the cost and fatten our pockets a pit too."

Phae

This is it the world I guess is turning against us. *sad*

Originally posted by DaVirus
This is it the world I guess is turning against us. *sad*

Well its not like its for no reason.

Well it seems that the trading fights has begun, we will see the results of all the problems that US is now facing with the trade deficit coming to reality.

What happen if the rest of the world do the same? well remember now what happen when a national deficit keeps growing and then top with a trading deficit, and the low on the dollar? other countries are going to put the heat on the US.

I guess is happening sooner that I though.

Trust me, American citizens are going to feel the results of all that now.

The EU and Canada don't want to start a trade war, do they?
We know who the winners will be, and it won't be them.
The unemployment rate in France is 10%+ and in Germany 12.6+.....think about it.
Who imports are more important to who?

All this won't do nothing but hurt hte EU more than the overflated and overhyped Euro has.

IMHO, the US should just simply respond by raising the tariffs on the imports of those countries.






seekerof

I don't know Seekerof, it seems to me that the warnings and predictions of the financial geniuses about our economy and the repercussions of not fixing our deficit and get the dollar going, is starting to happen.

Even Greespan warn us about it when the interest rates when up recently.

I think some are not listening to the warnings.

What do you think.

You sweat it out, Marg, like you have been doing, k?
I'm not sweating it.
The US economy is healthy and thriving, despite what you naysayers and doomsayers assert. GNP still on the rise, etc., etc.

Dollar? I am not worrying over yet.
The EU is the ones that need to worry. Just watch.






seekerof

I would not be worry if it was only my husband and I after all he does get a pension, beside his full time job.

But when you have two kids in college I will like to finish with them first before something god forbid happen and we find ourself in a tough situation we an economy fall out.

Or you guys can just repeal the Byrd Amendment IF we impose tarrifs expect to see prices rise across the board, and oh yeah while you guys keep the boarder closed to Canadian Beef and Pork we are now building up our own Packaging industry which will steal jobs from you guys. We used to send alot of Beef and Pork across the border to get packaged and shipped, now with your foolish protectionist policy that makes NAFTA seem even more irrelivant we can become more self-sufficient. Keep it up, America Keep driving the wedge in deeper. You are only digging a deep ditch that will be very difficult to get out of.

Oh yeah Seekerof, it seems Greenspan disagrees with you He is usually unflappable but even HE is sounding the alarm about the defecits. I agree the US dollar is not at worrying levels YET but you do know that the lower the dollar falls the MORE debt you guys will have to pay off in the long run right?

Originally posted by Seekerof
The EU and Canada don't want to start a trade war, do they?
We know who the winners will be, and it won't be them.

I'm fairly sure that Canada doesn't want to start a trade war, and I would guess that the EU doesn't either. They have just become frustrated because the US has had 17 months to repeal this law, and nothing has happened.

If the US wants to impose levies on imports, that's all fine and good, and your prerogative. But when a levy is being disputed in the WTO, the money should not be dispersed to the companies who initiated the actions. That money should be in trust, with your Customs agency, until the matter is settled. Because if that money is ordered returned, which is a possibility in the case of softwood lumber, the money has to come from somewhere, and I don't think the companies who collected on the duties will want to give it back.

And if the companies who are in the affected industries are already having their market protected by sanctions, why are they entitled to another payout on top of that? The phrase 'double-dipping' comes to mind. That money, if collected legally, is the US taxpayers.

Personally, I was rather shocked (to put it mildly) when I saw this article. I took a moment, realized that tomorrow is April 1st, and no, this was not a joke. I know that this kind of thing has been talked about up here before, but our government’s position has always been linkage of trade issues=bad news, and for the most part, I agree.

I don't quite know what to think about the whole thing. Not being from the US, I don't know the politics of repealing the Byrd Amendment, but I would think those are some pretty powerful lobby groups if they can block compliance with WTO rulings.

Maybe you can fill me in a little more. Bush has stated that he wants to open the border to cattle again, and that he wants to repeal this amendment that caused the surtaxes; but Congress isn't going along. Is he saying one thing to us, and then saying something different at home; or is it Congress like he says?

Where is a good social studies book when you need one to smack someone upside the head with?

GNP - Is Consumer Purchases + Government Spending + Private Investment + Exports all added together. And don't forget GNP doesn't include Inflation.

If the Cost of Merchandise Increases, then Consumer Purchases Increase, This doesn't take into consideration the Quality of Life for these Consumers. A new House may cost a Consumer $200k yet the environmental impacts of the neighborhood the housing community was built on may end up lowering the value. So Spending Goes Up and Value Goes Down.

Governement Spending Increases from Borrowing money from foreign nations to pay for huge Military Contracts.

Private Investments from Military Contractors and Health Insurance Companies Increase Based off the Government Spending from the Borrowed Money.

All of these can Offset the Export and keep the GNP high or make it Appear to Increase.

However they are NOT representative nor can they be considered an Economic Indicator to measure Economic Growth properly.

Phae

I've said it once, I've said it again- NAFTA sucks the big one for canada. It's done nothing but weaken the economy. Hey, the US has always been antagonistic towards us. Maybe we should start shipping our produce , wood and other goods east and west instead of south.

DE

this is bs, if they wanna play, i say we put harsh tarrifs on them, it'll hurt them more than us.

Relative to Canada, the surtax will cause narry a ripple to the swine exporters down south unless a small time operation since it same is relatively samll.

The screaming however will come from tobacco manufacturers who do happen to have clout on Capital Hill, as theirs to Canada alone is $33 million worth of exports.

Originally posted by sardion2000
Or you guys can just repeal the Byrd Amendment

why should we be blackmailed into doing that? i say we slap back even harder.

It seems that as usual people are bashing our biggest trading partner instead of looking as why this is happening.

It seems that the US have fail to bring legislation in conformity with international obligations, but we all now that perhaps may have been an overside by the bush administration or perhaps like many pointed out is just retaliation.

Now people are wrong if all the countries that trade with the US does the same thing US will feel the pressure and we the American consumer will feel the heat sooner or later.

When you have 25 nations asking US to change the Byrd amendment and US, has fail to do anything about it, you bet we are going to feel what is coming down.

I guess the congress and Bush has other more important issues to deal with that this trading matter.

By the way is not black mail but fair trading practices, now think about it 25 nations not only Canada.

Slap back harder!! What does that mean... if the US does anything else to Canada we will just legalize pot up here!! Then let's see what those nuts in the Whitehouse do!!

Lets tax every Canadian who crosses the border 15% of their wages made at US job each day!

We will call it the Deliverance Tax (swine) bend over and squeel like a pig tax.

What in the "He double hockey sticks" ever happened to the NAFTA agreement, this should not be happening, new trade taxes between the US and Canada?

It must be the French Canadians behind this.