Former US President Donald Trump announced in March 2018 that additional tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, will be imposed on imported steel and aluminum from countries including Turkey. Turkey, China, Norway, India, Russia and Switzerland filed a complaint against the USA with the WTO because the decision was against the WTO rules.
The three-person panel of the WTO Dispute Resolution Mechanism, on December 11, 2022, upon the application of Turkey, Norway, China and Switzerland, rejected Trump's citing "national security" concerns to justify his decision, and decided that the taxes would not be implemented during "event of war or other emergency."
In his evaluation to the AA correspondent, Yayan reminded that after the USA implemented the protection measure in 2018, the EU claimed that "there may be a trade diversion to the EU market" based on this and that "products that cannot enter the USA may head towards the EU".
Stating that Trump took a precautionary measure in order to prevent a deficit of 370 billion dollars a year for China, Yayan said, "For 22 years, a deficit of 50 billion dollars has been given in favor of the USA in bilateral trade with our country. Despite this, it is incomprehensible that while the flexible quota application has been introduced to other stakeholder countries, the continuation of pressure on our steel industry and not taking steps in the same direction in Turkey.
Veysel Yayan said that although the EU and the USA are actively involved in the establishment of the WTO, they do not fulfill their obligations by "almost ignoring" the WTO when a decision is taken against their interests, and demands the implementation of WTO rules only when a decision is made in their favor.
Saying that the US authorities find it strange to accuse the WTO of exceeding its limits, Yayan said, "It is vital for the US and the EU to comply with WTO decisions as soon as possible in terms of maintaining the validity of certain rules and order in world trade."
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