WTO to probe complaint by EU

The World Trade Organization agreed to probe a European Union complaint that the method the U.S. uses to calculate import duties illegally inflates tariffs imposed on EU goods such as steel, chemicals and pasta.

The calculation, called zeroing, enables the U.S. to maximize customs duties by selectively excluding some market price data. The U.S. used the methodology to work out whether imports from the EU were sold below cost, or dumped, on the domestic market.

WTO arbitrators have ruled several times that zeroing violates global trade regulations.

Although the U.S. agreed to comply with the judgments in December, the EU wants the Bush administration to recalculate the duties retroactively to cover products that weren’t specifically part of the initial complaint.