WTO Ruled Against Decades Old U.S. Law

27/11/2011 12:00 - 433 Views

In the World Trade Organization (WTO), other countries can challenge not just actions by the United States, but entire laws. Sometimes these are laws that have been on the books for decades. In one such case, the European Communities and Japan challenged an 82-year-old Anti-Dumping Act of 1916. Following the trend that is all too common in disputes brought against the U.S., the WTO ruled that the law was illegal, and the U.S. needed to take steps to resolve it or face punitive action.

The European Communities brought the complaint against the United States because they believed the Anti-Dumping Act of 1916 was an anti-dumping measure that was illegal under the WTO charter. This charge was grounded in the idea that the act targeted imports and price discrimination. The United States argued that the laws against anti-dumping did not apply because the law did not specifically say anti-dumping duties were the only remedy for dumping problems.

Despite this argument, the WTO ruled against the United States. As a result of this ruling, in 2004 the United States passed Pub. L. 108---429, which repealed the antidumping provision of the Revenue Act of 1916. This action repealed a law that had served the United States well for nearly a century. If the United States had not been a member of the WTO it likely would have remained law, but instead our leaders bowed to the whims of the international body.

This is evidence that we need to get out of the WTO. We should be able to determine which laws best suit the needs of our country, not which laws best suit the needs of other countries. We can still have international trade without the WTO, but it can be negotiated in much more favorable terms.

To demonstrate the negative effect that the WTO has had on the U.S., Economy in Crisis has prepared a new report that documents all of the cases that the United States has lost in the World Trade Organization. Entitled “Summary and Analysis of World Trade Organization Cases Lost By The United States,” the report reads as a history of economic setbacks. It appears that nearly every action the United States takes to protect its domestic industries is ruled to be illegal by the World Trade Organization.

By Karl Rusnak

Source: economyincrisis.org