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The United States warned the European Union that reopening a case at the World Trade Organization against Washington over a Trump-era steel and aluminum dispute might hurt efforts to work together on multilateral trade, Bloomberg News reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the talks.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai last month told counterparts at a Group of Seven meeting that an EU complaint would possibly undermine attempts to reform the WTO’s dispute settlement system, European diplomats and other officials said to Bloomberg News.
The WTO’s appellate forum for settling trade disagreements is currently paralyzed because of U.S. maneuvers as Europe seeks to restore the system.
Tai’s comments may feed European doubts that trade ties have improved with President Joe Biden in office. Trump had imposed levies on billions of dollars of European exports, and Biden hasn’t removed some of them to the chagrin of allies in the region.
The USTR and European Commission declined to comment on the matter, Bloomberg News reported.