Japan is stepping up pressure on the US in a dispute about the way the US sets duties on imports it views as unfairly priced, by reviving a request for sanctions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Japanese decision is a further blow against the controversial US method of setting duties on goods that are dumped - sold for less than they cost at home. Critics say the US methodology inflates the tariffs, a practice that has been repeatedly condemned by WTO judges.

The US is the only one of the WTO's 153 members to use zeroing, and US officials have acknowledged that they would have to modify their practice to comply with WTO rules.

But with US Trade Minister Ron Kirk emphasising the importance of enforcing trade deals and fair trade in US policy, President Barack Obama's administration will not want to appear to weaken its armoury against unfair imports.

The US already faces a demand for over $300 million (R2.3 billion) in sanctions from the EU in another dispute over zeroing that Washington lost.


In a document posted on the WTO website yesterday, Japan said it was requesting a WTO arbitrator to resume arbitration in the case now that the WTO had ruled definitively that the US was breaking international trade rules.

Japan is seeking $248m in annual retaliation against the US in the case, which originally involved anti-dumping duties on Japanese ball bearings.

Japan and the US agreed to suspend arbitration in the case in 2008 to allow the WTO to decide whether the US had complied with earlier rulings in the case, which began in 2004.

Last August the WTO adopted a compliance ruling after the US lost an appeal, clearing the way for Japan to resume the sanctions process.

"Now we're ready so we started it again," a Japanese trade diplomat said. – Reuters