Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group

The fight over US steel tariffs, writes David Sanger in the New York Times, will go down in history as the case that defines the World Trade Organization's power. No case in the eight year history of the WTO has tested its power to quite the same degree, but now it has been tested – and won. Last week President Bush was forced to eliminate steel tariffs that the WTO ruled illegal after the European Union and Japan threatened well-targeted retaliatory tariffs that were meant to hit swing states in the next presidential election. The Bush administration reluctantly complied and announced this week that it was rescinding the tariffs – to the ire of US steel producers but also with the approval of car manufacturers. The WTO may have proved its strength in the US, but it remains to be seen how it will next use it. – YaleGlobal