The World Trade Organization said Japan and Turkey may impose retaliatory tariffs of US$440 million and US$267 million, respectively, on U.S. goods in response to a previously announced tariff on steel and aluminum in March, Reuters reported May 22.
This is on top of Russia's threat to implement US$538 million in tariffs, with the European Union, China and India putting their claims at US$1.6 billion, US$612 million and $165 million, respectively, bringing the total bill to around US$3.5 billion per year.
According to the report, the nations all reject the U.S. view that the import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum are justified by national security concerns, which exempt it from WTO rules.
The tariffs are said to have the hallmarks of "safeguards," a trade restriction that can be legitimately used to protect a struggling industry from an unforeseen surge in imports. A country using safeguards should increase imports of other goods as compensation for other members standing to lose from the restriction of their trade.
The U.S. denied that its steel and aluminum tariffs were safeguards and refused to compensate, which prompted retaliation from the affected nations.
Japan said it was free to impose at least US$264 million of its retaliation after 30 days, the report noted. Russia and Japan did not specify the scope of its retaliation, but Turkey listed 22 U.S. goods it was planning to target, ranging from nuts, rice and tobacco to cars and steel products.
