RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE CONCERNING A MULTILATERAL ARRANGEMENT FOR STEEL (adopted unanimously at the 289th Session of 18 December 1990) (91/C 10/04)

The European Coal and Steel Community Consultative Committee: 1. regrets the continued existence of a large number of prohibitive tariff or non-tariff barriers which continue to obstruct international steel trade; 2.notes that these barriers have almost totally disappeared in the Community, as steel imports from third countries are being progressively liberalized, thus making the Community into one of the most open trading areas for the exchange of goods; 3.notes that, at the same time, trade with the United States remains subject, until 31 March 1992, to restrictions which prevent Community producers from adapting to the current state and conditions of the American steel market and that, in contrast to the Community market, the United States market has not recently opened up; 4.notes, however, that the United States, during the renewal of the 'voluntary restraint arrangements' imposed on exporting countries, signed 'bilateral consensus agreements' in 1989 with 10 other countries which were intended to provide the basis of an international trade regime for steel which would guarantee fair competition and eliminate distortions; 5.remarks that the bilateral and partial nature of these agreements means that they cannot constitute more than an initial contribution to a new organization of international steel trade; 6.recalls that the objective, namely the liberalization and the restoration of discipline in steel trade, can only be achieved by the conclusion of a true 'multilateral steel agreement', which sets up an international code of good conduct to be respected by all partners and signed by the greatest possible number of importing and exporting countries; 7.considers that the multilateral agreement, in order to achieve this objective, should contain the following elements: - elimination of all subsidies, including those provided by regional or local authorities, which might distort competiton. In this respect, the Community's aid rules (including the aid code) should be incorporated into the agreement, -harmonization of customs tariffs on steel with lowering of the highest customs duties and consolidation within the MFN framework for signatories to the steel agreement, -abolition of all non-tariff measures which have a negative impact on fair competition, -definition of rules of implementation for anti-dumping procedures for signatories to the agreement so that these cannot constitute hidden non-tariff barriers, -setting up of a restrictive mechanism for sanctions to prevent evasion of these disciplines, -setting up of an international organization under the aegis of GATT charged with the effective implementation of this agreement. 8.is of the opinion that the GATT should serve as a framework for the conclusion and the follow-up of this agreement and that the Uruguay Round provides the appropriate vehicule to initiate this; 9.strongly requests that the European Commission immediately take all appropriate measures to propose to the contracting parties of the GATT that they conclude, by 31 December 1991 at the latest, a multilateral agreement on steel in conformity with the spirit and the principles set out above.