EU protests over possible US duties on uranium
Date: 20-Dec-01
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Adrian Croft
The EU said the U.S. Department of Commerce had made a decision on
Friday which could lead to the imposition of duties on low-enriched
uranium from several European countries.
Enriched uranium is used as a fuel in nuclear power generating plants.
EU exports worth around $500 million are at stake, and would be heavily
hit by any duties, the EU said.
In a statement, the EU's executive Commission voiced "serious concerns"
and disappointment about the way the Department of Commerce reached its
decision that the EU exports were dumped and subsidized.
The European Commission questioned the methodology used by the
Department of Commerce, saying data and arguments put forward by the EU
and the European industry had not been properly taken into account.
"The EU will now carefully examine this decision and reserves its right
to take the matter up in the World Trade Organization if this dispute
cannot be amicably resolved," EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in
the statement.
The EU said it regretted that the Department of Commerce had "again
demonstrated a very protectionist approach to trade policy," noting that
the U.S. International Trade Commission recently proposed imposing high
tariffs on steel imports.
The 15-nation EU and the United States often cross swords over trade
matters, with uranium joining steel, an EU ban on hormone-treated beef
and U.S. tax breaks for exporters as causes of transatlantic friction.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is due to hold talks with Lamy
in Brussels on Tuesday.
URANIUM PROBE
The Commerce Department launched an investigation of two European
uranium companies in Dec. 2000 after receiving a complaint from USEC
Inc., the only American producer of enriched uranium.
USEC accused its European competitors, Eurodif SA and Urenco Ltd., of
unfairly selling uranium in the U.S. market for less than their cost of
production and benefiting from government subsidies.
Urenco is a British-Dutch-German consortium, while Eurodif is controlled
by the French government.
The European Commission said that if the International Trade Commission
found next month that the European imports were harming the U.S.
industry, the United States would impose duties of 32.78 percent for
uranium exports from France and 2.26 percent for exports from Germany,
the Netherlands and Britain.
The EU also said it was concerned about the use of antidumping duties to
protect USEC, which it said received generous assistance from the U.S.
government.
An executive with Urenco's U.S. subsidiary said last week the company
could file a preliminary application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission early next year to build a $1 billion U.S. uranium enrichment
facility.
