Japan is considering imposing retaliatory duties on US goods to counter subsidies paid by Washington to companies under an anti-dumping programme ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation, government officials said on Thursday. The Nihon Keizai business daily reported on Thursday the tariffs could amount to some $76 million on US steel and ball bearing products, and would be imposed from September.
"We are considering...in line with WTO regulations," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference. But he declined to say when and what goods would be subject to the levies.
It would be a first for Tokyo to impose retaliatory duties.
Hosoda said he did not expect the counter-tariff measures, if implemented, would hurt US-Japan relations.
The plan is likely to call for a 15 percent levy on about 10 steel products from the United States, including ball bearings, Kyodo news agency said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
It would effectively reduce the value of Japanese imports of US steel products by about 5.6 billion yen ($49.80 million), Kyodo said.
The United States has paid out more than $1 billion to US ball bearing, steel, seafood, pasta, candle and other companies under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 - otherwise known as the Byrd amendment after one of its chief sponsors, Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat.
The programme distributes money raised by duties on imports the United States has determined are subsidised or unfairly priced to companies that sought the protection. Previously, those funds went into the general US treasury.
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