GENEVA - THE European Union called on Thursday for the United States to drop a controversial method of tackling unfairly priced imports, triggering an arbitration process at the World Trade Organisation.

The EU had said earlier this month it wanted to retaliate against the United States by imposing duties of US$311 million (S$593 million) on US exports over Washington's failure to comply with WTO rulings on anti-dumping measures.

But the United States objected to the level of sanctions, and it will now be settled by a WTO arbitrator within 60 days.

WTO courts have repeatedly ruled against Washington's use of zeroing - a method of calculating anti-dumping duties rejected by all other WTO members.

The European Union said it was seeking retaliation because the United States had failed to comply with these rulings, missing a deadline of April 2007. The United States also missed a Dec 2009 deadline to comply in a second case over zeroing, it told the WTO's dispute settlement body.

Brussels said the US measures were hurting exporters in products including steel, ball bearings, chemicals and pasta. 'Since the entry into force of the WTO Agreements, the United States has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in excess anti-dumping duties, not mention the far greater economic harm that such measures have been causing in terms of lost trade,' the EU said. – REUTERS