United States

RFA Speaks Out on WTO Compliance

NAFB News Service
Senators John McCain of Arizona and John Barrasso of Wyoming believe that current ethanol tax and trade policies are illegal under World Trade Organization agreements. But the Renewable Fuels Association has sent letters to the pair to the contrary. RFA believes the tax incentive VEETC and the offsetting secondary tariff are WTO compliant.

Dealing specifically with VEETC and a potential WTO challenge, Dinneen explained, in response to a potential case, the U.S. is able to raise powerful defenses to an actionability finding against VEETC, based on the need to conserve fossil fuel, or the fact that it is available to both domestic and imported ethanol. If the credit is not shown to be an arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries, or a disguised restriction on international trade, it will likely survive any WTO challenge.

Summing up RFA’s defense of current ethanol tax and trade policy, Dinneen wrote, – we strongly believe that the existing market-based incentives effectively support ethanol growth in the U.S., without creating an unreasonable or unnecessary barrier to trade.

Emerging economies have to assume responsibilities: US on WTO

Emerging economies have to assume responsibilities: US on WTO
Geneva, The stalled Doha round of tradenegotiation can conclude this year only if the emergingeconomies like India, China and Brazil accept the”responsibilities” that come along with their position in theglobal economy, a senior US trade official said today.

“If they are not prepared to accept the responsibilitywe wouldn”t (have a successful outcome),” said AmbassadorMichael Punke, the US trade envoy to the World TradeOrganisation.

He said the Doha Round of WTO talks can be concludedonly if emerging economies “accept the responsibilities thatcome along with their position in the global economy”.

In what appears to be an attempt to shift the blame oflack of progress in the long-stalled negotiation on developingcountries, the US trade envoy said he is “disappointed” withChina for not being willing to negotiate on substantivedemands Washington raised in the sectoral tariff elimination.

India, said Ambassador Punke, is adopting “one stepforward and one step backward” approach.

“My personal assessment of India is that it”s one stepforward, one step back. Signals we have received from Indiahave been very mixed,” he observed.

“We were on a cusp of entering into … specific typesof discussion… (that were) critical for the juncture thatwe”re at now,” said Ambassador Punke, following his meetingwith Indian trade officials in August last year.

However, upon his return, those “never materialiseddespite our efforts to engage,” he said.

A senior Indian trade official told PTI that “Indiawill adhere to the ”rules of engagement” as set out in theDoha Development Agenda to conclude the negotiations thisyear”.

“But it will not accept demands for ”mandatory”participation in sectoral tariff negotiations or provideaccess for remanufactured goods as demanded by the UnitedStates and other developed countries,” the official said,preferring anonymity.

“In the spirit of accommodation, India willparticipate in the sectoral tariff talks on a voluntary basisas stipulated in the Doha mandate,” the official added,arguing that India”s industrial growth dropped to the lowestlevel of 2.5 per cent.

Brazil”s trade envoy Ambassador Roberto Azevedomeanwhile said that the US has a “misguided sense ofequilibrium”.

“If this round is unbalanced it is certainly to thedetriment of developing countries,” he told PTI, emphasisingthat the developmental mandate of the round should not beundermined. .

An Asian trade official said the US is yet to secure a mandate from its hostile Congress, suggesting that unless itsecures trade promotion authority it would be difficult tonegotiate with Washington.

“We are ready, willing and able to negotiate anywhere,to negotiate any issue, to negotiate with anybody — exceptourselves,” the US official said.

The Doha Round of WTO negotiations have been stuckmid-way after they began in 2001 as serious differencescontinue to persist between developed countries and developingeconomies on issues like market access and agriculturalsubsidies.

Senators doubt WTO would uphold U.S. ethanol tariff

(Reuters) – Senators John McCain and John Barrasso said on Monday the extension of U.S. ethanol subsidies and a tariff on imports is likely illegal under international trade rules, lending some support to Brazil’s opposition to U.S. ethanol policy.

“I believe the WTO would rule against the United States because it’s clearly a subsidy that is neither warranted nor in keeping with WTO regulations,” Senator McCain of Arizona told reporters after a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia.

In December, the U.S. government extended through end-2011 a 54-cent-per-gallon import tariff on ethanol as well as a 45-cent-per-gallon subsidy for blenders worth up to $6 billion.

Brazil’s powerful sugar and ethanol industry is pressuring its government to take the United States to the World Trade Organization over its policies on the biofuel that Brazilian producers say are illegal.

Brazil successfully won its last two WTO cases, against U.S. cotton and EU sugar subsidies.

“I’m unalterably opposed to ethanol subsidies,” McCain said as part of a bilateral delegation here to discuss security, defense and other regional issues.

The United States and Brazil are the world’s two biggest producers and consumers of fuel ethanol.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso added that clean energy should be made available to all citizens as quickly as possible.

“We agree with the president here (Rousseff) that (the U.S. tariff) should not be there,” Barrasso said.

(Reporting by Raymond Collit; Writing by Reese Ewing; editing by Jim Marshall)