The US yesterday appealed against a World Trade Organisation (WTO)panel finding that hefty tariffs it imposed on steel imports in March 2002 violate global trading rules.
The long-awaited move means that the tariffs - which initially added up to 30 per cent to the cost of foreign steel and steel products in the US - can stay in place for at least another nine months, and perhaps more.
The appeal was lodged with the WTO just before a meeting of its dispute settlement body called to approve the report from a three-man panel, which had said the US should be asked to withdraw the measure immediately.
Trade diplomats said the move, although expected, would anger exporters in the 15-nation European Union and seven other European, Asian and Latin-American countries that had filed separate cases on the issue at the WTO.
The European Commission said it was confident of final victory.
"We have already started to co-ordinate with the other co-complainants to defend the panel's conclusion," said a spokesman for the Commission.
The EU's steel manufacturers' federation, Eurofer, said it was disappointed that the US had resorted to its "normal practice" of appealing WTO decisions.
Apart from the EU, complainants ranging from Japan, Brazil and China to South Korea, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland say their steel exporters have lost billions of dollars in reduced sales to the US.
They found allies in US firms importing steel to make a wide range of consumer and even industrial goods, who argue that domestic steel is too expensive.
After the ruling was announced last month, EU Trade Commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy said that unless the tariffs, championed by President Bush, were withdrawn, the EU would impose sanctions worth $2.2 billion (€1.9 billion) on US imports.
Such action will now have to wait until the full WTO dispute settlement process - which includes not only the appeal but also arbitration on how much each country affected has been losing - is played out, possibly not until next summer.
Mr Bush and US trade representative Mr Robert Zoellick are under pressure from steel manufacturing and labour lobbies as well as key legislators in Congress, some of whom had labelled the finding as "Yankee-bashing".
