Our Times: Orange County Community News

The United States expects to publish a revised list of European goods to be hit with sanctions in two trade disputes late this week or early next, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said. The Clinton administration had set a June 19 target date for announcing changes to its retaliatory trade measures on $308.2 million of European Union goods in separate disputes involving beef and bananas. Barshefsky told reporters after a meeting of the 29-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development panel in Paris that she expects the new list to be issued at the “end of this week or early next.” She later said the reason for the delay was the huge number of comments on the new list submitted by various interested groups. The United States imposed the sanctions on EU goods last year after winning separate World Trade Organization cases against the EU’s banana import policies and its ban on the import of hormone-treated beef. The United States has imposed 100% import duties on $191.4 million of EU products ranging from handbags to linen in the banana dispute and $116.8 million worth of EU pork, gourmet food products and other farm goods in the beef row. A law recently passed by Congress requires the administration periodically to revise the list, meaning new targets could be selected.