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Article: America's sorry trade performance: whatever happened to all that talk about rule of law?(Illustration)
- Article from:
- The International Economy
- Article date:
- January 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 International Economy Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization recently ruled the United States' steel tariffs invalid, members of Congress complained bitterly. They pointed to the ruling as yet another example of a WTO body exceeding its charge and misinterpreting the rules. But their fingers were pointing in the wrong direction. The steel debacle was simply the latest example of America's chronic inability to play by the safeguard rules. WTO provisions allow countries to apply safeguards when imports are "a substantial cause of serious injury," but in five out of the six times the United States has adopted such measures over the past decade, they have been successfully ...