WORLD TRADE Web site link offers chance to support tariffs on steel

Japan is threatening to retaliate with $85 million in tariffs on U.S. goods.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
YOUNGSTOWN -- Sens. Marc Dann of Liberty, D-32nd, and Robert Hagan of Youngstown, D-33rd, have launched a Web site that will give visitors the opportunity to send an e-mail to President Bush, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Zoellick about the importance of steel tariffs.
The Web site, which is at www.toughtariffs.org, urges visitors to "tell our government leaders to stand firm on steel tariffs for the future of our economy" by clicking on a highlighted link.
The link will bring up a prepared e-mail message that urges officials to keep the tariff program in place to save the American steel industry. Additional comments can be added to the e-mail.
The move ties in with Hagan's resolution before the Ohio General Assembly -- Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 -- which urges the Bush administration to continue protection tariffs on specific steel products.
According to Associated Press reports, Japan has put the United States on notice that it will slap $85 million in retaliatory tariffs on American imports unless Washington abandons steel tariffs ruled unfair by the World Trade Organization.
Trade dispute
The threat Wednesday was the latest salvo in an escalating trade dispute involving the world's biggest economic powers. Japan has never resorted to sanctions against its closest trading partner since the Geneva-based trade watchdog was formed in 1995.
Earlier this month, the European Union threatened $2.2 billion in retaliatory sanctions against U.S. imports ranging from orange juice to pajamas.
Japan's warning intensifies pressure on Bush to scrap the steel import duties. South Korea said Wednesday that it, too, is considering similar countermeasures.
Tokyo is seeking to penalize American products by $85.2 million, an amount equal to the losses Japanese steel companies allege they have suffered because of unfair U.S. trade barriers imposed in March 2002.