Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, today made the following comment on a World Trade Organization appeals body’s ruling that declared illegal a U.S. law giving American companies fines collected from foreign firms they accused of unfair pricing.
“I’m disappointed the United States didn’t win this appeal. But the Byrd amendment was slipped into an appropriations conference report without full debate in the Senate. The Finance Committee, as the committee of jurisdiction, never had a chance to review the amendment. I’m not surprised that a bill that was never considered by the committee of expertise or even the full Senate is found to violate our international commitments. That’s why we have committees - to make sure things like this don’t happen.
“I’ll work with the administration and my colleagues before deciding next steps. Of course,
we need to comply with our WTO commitments, win or lose. That’s part of expecting other nations to comply when they lose cases against us. And even though we lost this case, it doesn’t affect our ability to use our antidumping or countervailing duty laws. Those are still at our disposal."
Source: Ranking Member’s News
