The European Union (EU) on Sunday welcomed the vote by the US Congress to repeal the 1916 Anti-Dumping Act which was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in September 2000.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said: "I am glad to see that in my last hours as Trade Commissioner we have managed to solve another trade dispute with the United States."

"I am satisfied that the EU patient but firm approach has been rewarded after four years of waiting. I hope that the U.S. president will now sign this bill into law and we can put to bed a story which lasted for too long," he added.

The U.S. 1916 Anti-Dumping Act provided for remedies to the complainant in an anti-dumping case equivalent to three times the damage suffered, fines up to 5,000 U.S. dollars or imprisonment up to one year.

At the request by the EU and Japan, in September 2000 the WTO condemned this Act for allowing sanctions against dumping not permitted under the WTO rules. The Anti-Dumping Agreement limits action against dumping to the imposition of anti-dumping duties. As a result of this condemnation, the U.S. had to repeal its legislation by the end of July 2001.

The EU made all efforts to accommodate the US difficulty to comply with the WTO decision. The period of time within which the US was to repeal the Act was extended for 5 months (from July to December 2001).The EU requested, in January 2002, , but it subsequently suspended this procedure for more than a year and a half in anticipation that Congress would act and retaliation would be unnecessary.

The persisting inaction of the U.S. and the initiation of new cases against EU companies triggered the EU to ask the WTO for the authorisation to apply retaliatory measures in September 2003. In February 2004, WTO arbitrators accepted the EU request to be allowed to impose countermeasures.

The EU adopted a regulation, which entered into force on 9 January 2004, to neutralize the effects of the 1916 Anti-Dumping Act in the EU. It prohibits the recognition and enforcement in the EU of Court or administrative decisions based on the 1916 Anti-Dumping Act. It also allows EU companies or individuals to counter-sue the U.S. plaintiff in order to recover any outlays, costs, damages and expenses caused by the application of the Anti-Dumping Act of 1916.