November 11, 2003
Yesterday the WTO reaffirmed its earlier ruling that the president's steel tariffs are illegal. But:
Administration officials said President Bush had not decided whether to lift the temporary tariffs, which increase the cost of imported steel by as much as 30 percent and were meant to give the ailing steel industry a three-year respite from international competition.It's not clear how Bush will be able to say he has a free trade agenda after fighting hard for agricultural subsidies, protecting the steel industry, and now maybe flouting the WTO on the way to a trade war with Europe.
Exacerbating the problem may be the president's contempt for the European powers on other issues - Iraq and Kyoto - which has them trying to play an activist role in the 2004 elections:
The European Union has made the president's decision more difficult by aiming its proposed sanctions at products in states considered pivotal in the 2004 election - threatening, for example, to impose tariffs on citrus fruit imported from Florida.Another group who no doubt will find this unsettling is the president's pro-trade, conservative base.
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