Japan decided Monday to invoke countervailing import tariffs on US ball bearing and steel products from Sept. 1, in response to a US antidumping law which the World Trade Organization has ruled, violates global rules.

In the first such measure Japan has ever taken against any trading partner, the country will slap a 15 percent levy on 15 product items from the United States, including seven types of ball bearings and three types of steel products.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry issued a statement, saying, "Although we have repeatedly asked the United States to abolish the law, the Congress has not discussed the bill yet, and possibilities are very low for the legislation to be scrapped within this fiscal year through September."

"We confirmed the need to put additional pressure on the US Congress and strongly hope that Washington will take Japan's decision seriously and scrap the Byrd Amendment immediately," the statement said.

Vice Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hideji Sugiyama said in a press conference that the retaliatory step to be taken by Japan is unlikely to immediately affect Japan-US ties because Tokyo will implement the measure sanctioned by the WTO and the US government recognizes the need to scrap it.

The levies will be in place as long as Washington maintains the 2000 law. The Japanese government will review the items covered and tariff rates every year, the official said.

The retaliatory measure will effectively reduce the value of Japanese imports of the 15 US products, also including a type of forklift truck and a type of printer, by about 5.6 billion yen (50 million US dollars), he said.

Of the 15 products, 14 are currently imported duty free, while a 3.5 percent tariff is imposed on the remaining one, which is a type of belting for transmissions or conveyers.

In 2004, imports of the 15 items to Japan totaled 13.31 billion yen (119 million dollars) with the seven bearings items accounting for 10.32 billion yen (92.1 million dollars) and three steel products standing at 830 million yen (7.41 million dollars).

The US law, known as the Byrd Amendment, allows antidumping duties collected by the US government to be shared with domestic industries to help offset damage from cheap imports.

The WTO ruled in January 2003 that the US legislation violates world trade rules, after complaints were filed by 11 economies including Japan, the European Union and Canada, and urged the country to repeal the law by December that year.

Since the Untied States failed to comply with the WTO recommendation before the deadline, the multilateral trade body gave approval last November for Japan, the European Union, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, India and Chile to take retaliatory measures.

The WTO then said Japan can impose countervailing levies worth about 52.1 million dollars, or some 5.7 billion yen, on US products.

Of the eight economies, the European Union and Canada invoked the countervailing import tariffs in May. In June, Japan, together with other economies, told the United States to scrap the 2000 law by the end of July or face higher tariffs on US products.

Economists and analysts expect the countervailing measure to have a limited impact on Japan-US trade because the size of the levies is relatively small.

Source: Xinhua