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outubro 17, 2004
Zoellick warns EU on linking trade disputes
[Fonte: Financial Times]
Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, fired a warning shot at the European Union on Sunday, saying it would be taking a big gamble if it linked the escalating dispute over subsidies to Boeing and Airbus to a long-running fight over US corporate taxation.
Mr Zoellick told the Financial Times that such linkage would be "a risky course. If one does that it puts pressure on others to do that. I hope that's not the course they choose."
The comments came before his final meeting in Brussels on Monday with Pascal Lamy, the outgoing EU trade commissioner.
President George W. Bush is expected this week to sign a sweeping corporate tax bill that would eliminate the so-called Foreign Sales Corporation scheme that had been ruled an illegal tax subsidy by the World Trade Organisation. Mr Zoellick says the bill should bring an end to European trade sanctions.
But the EU is considering leaving some portion of the sanctions in place and targeting the penalties directly at imports of Boeing aircraft to punish the company for backing the WTO complaint against subsidies to Airbus launched by Washington this month.
But under the bill passed by Congress, Boeing will continue to receive a tax rebate under the FSC scheme for future sales of aircraft that have been ordered. The EU appears set to challenge that provision as a continued violation of the WTO ruling.
But Mr Zoellick warned that linking the two disputes would be damaging to the WTO dispute settlement process. "The EU likes to stress the importance of following the multilateral system, and the WTO is pretty explicit about not trying to link issues," he said. Such a linkage, he said, would "leave a very negative relationship with the Congress".
Publicado por jpdias às outubro 17, 2004 10:59 PM