Senators Vote to Kill Trade Law - Byrd Amendment Illegal, WTO Says

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102074.html?sub=AR

A festering trade dispute between the United States and several major trading partners appears set to subside after the Senate voted yesterday to repeal an anti-dumping law that was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.

The Senate action, which came as part of a broader budget bill that passed with Vice President Cheney's tie-breaking vote, would phase out the Byrd amendment, a five-year-old measure especially popular with lawmakers from industrial states heavily affected by foreign competition. The House has already voted to repeal the amendment, named for Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), in nearly identical legislation.

According to the Byrd amendment, whenever the government finds U.S. companies to be disadvantaged by the dumping of imported goods at unfairly low prices, the duties collected on those goods can go to the companies rather than to the Treasury

[xchrom]

1. republicans hate manufacturing jobs

they want to see an economy filled with mcworkers.

[tritsofme]

2. This was clearly illegal.

International agreements are a two-way street.

Good riddance to the Byrd Amendment.

[Solon]

3. Actually it isn't illegal...

All international agreements supercede the Constitution in this country, and as such, when an organization like the WTO tells you to jump, you ask, "How High?"

[tritsofme]

4. It wouldn't have created such a stir

if the money from the tariffs was kept by the government and not given to businesses.

[The Sushi Bandit]

5. True!