EU-US Foreign Sales Corporations dispute

Published: 18 November 2002

Policies & Issues:

Letter to Commissioner Liikanen

Following the invitation of the Commission to present Orgalime’s views and comments on the list of products that could be subject to countermeasures, Orgalime reinforced in this letter to Commissioner Lamy and Commissioner Liikanen the messages that were communicated in previous letters, i.e. that every effort should be made to avoid an escalation of the Foreign Sales Corporations trade conflict between the EU and the US. Orgalime still hopes that this trade dispute can be settled through negotiations without imposing trade sanctions from which neither side would gain.

Although Orgalime is concerned by the approach the Commission has requested trade federations to take, i.e. to comment on the list of CN-codes, and by the fact that it is difficult to measure at this stage the full impact that the measures may have on manufacturers, we have nevertheless submitted a detailed list of the CN-codes of products for which we have received specific requests for exclusion from the countermeasures from our national federations and industry sectors.