EU could take US to WTO over auto industry support, says EC chief.
The US Congress approved an aid package worth US$25 billion (S$38 billion) in Sept to help the auto industry invest in new generation technology but no timetable was fixed for payments to be made. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
PARIS - THE European Union is ready to take action at the World Trade Organistion if it judges that US state aid for its struggling auto industry is 'illegal,' European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday.
'We are looking at the (US) plan. The plan has not yet been made official but certainly, if it amounts to illegal state aid we will act at the WTO,' Mr Barroso told Europe 1 radio when asked about the US bailout package.
The US Congress approved an aid package worth US$25 billion (S$38 billion) in Sept to help the auto industry invest in new generation technology but no timetable was fixed for payments to be made.
Since then, problems have mounted as the global financial crisis has savaged the economy, with all three US majors - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - clamouring for help in the same way as Washington has bailed out the US banks.
US president-elect Barack Obama raised the issue of help for the industry with the aim of protecting jobs in the US industrial heartland but President George W. Bush has been reluctant to take action.
The WTO has a trades dispute mechanism to which aggrieved parties can take their complaints for settlement. -- AFP
