US free to 'insist' WTO hear high-tech dispute with EU: official

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States is free to "insist" that the World Trade Organization hear a dispute over high-technology import duties after the European Union blocked its request for WTO arbitration.

After the EU move, "the United States is able to insist that a panel be established at the next DSB (dispute settlements body) meeting," a senior US Trade Representative official told AFP.

The comment came after the WTO announced Friday that the EU had blocked a joint request by the United States, Japan and Taiwan for the Geneva-based body to settle the dispute.

The United States and the two Asian countries claim that the EU is violating trade rules by imposing duties on imports of certain products such as "cable boxes that can access the Internet,...