Thursday, January 15, 2004
ABCNEWS.com : Nations Seek Trade Sanctions Against U.S.
BRUSSELS, Belgium Jan. 15 — The European Union, Japan and South Korea asked the World Trade Organization for permission to impose sanctions on the United States in a dispute about a law that gives American firms money raised in fines levied on foreign rivals.
Other nations, including Brazil, Chile and Thailand, were expected to lodge similar requests after the U.S. Congress failed to repeal the so-called Byrd Amendment, which has been ruled illegal by the WTO...
There's something here I don't understand. If the sanctions were levied against foreign firms for damage done, why shouldn't the money go to the damaged entities? That just seems reasonable. It wasn't "the government" that was damaged. After all, if I win money in a civil suit, the government doesn't come along and take the cash - I do. So why should corporations (and their stake-holders) be any different? I realize this may be a difficult concept for some nations to understand, but we haven't devolved into a Marxist super-state just yet.
There is logic behind not allowing the levies go to the corporations who were allegedly damaged.
First, when anti-dumping levies are stablished, they protect American corporations from the damage, therefore the damage cease to exist.
Second,when anti-dumping levies are raised by the US Government, usually foreign companies don´t admit any wrongdoing or dumping, and don´t reckon US Government as neutral.
See the case of steel tariffs, for instance.