The European Commission – an institution of the European Union, has proposed to increase tariffs on US-made women’s jeans. According to recently released Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report, the increase may range from 0.45-4.3 per cent, starting May 1, 2017.
It’s worth mentioning here the EU has witnessed surges in tariffs to great extent in recent years. This duty was 26 per cent during the year beginning May 1, 2013, but was lowered to 0.35 per cent during the year beginning May 1, 2014. It then raised to 1.5 per cent during the year beginning May 1, 2015, and again lowered to 0.45 per cent during the year beginning May 1, 2016.
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The added tax to jeans serves as a part of a continuation of sanctions brought forward by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in reaction for the US’ failure to comply with a WTO ruling against the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, also known as the Byrd Amendment. The law allowed US the right to distribute anti-dumping and countervailing duties collected on foreign-made goods to affected domestic industries.
However, the law was later found to violate WTO rules and therefore repealed, allowing distributions to continue for cases before the appeal was established.
