WASHINGTON, May 1: The United States said on Tuesday that plans by the European Union and Japan to retaliate against US steel import tariffs would be an “unprecedented” violation of world trade rules.

While stepping up its criticism of the EU, the US Trade Representative’s office brought Japan into the fray in the wake of Tokyo’s threat last week to take immediate retaliatory action against the United States.

The measures proposed by Japan and the EU “would be unprecedented in the history of WTO dispute settlement procedures, and would strike at the heart of the multilateral trading system,” the USTR said in a statement

“Taking unilateral action will encourage other WTO members to ignore the dispute settlement process, which both Europe and Japan have vigorously defended in dispute settlement cases before the WTO.”

“As the EU itself has said, no nation should take justice in its own hands without a prior review by an independent and neutral panel,” Josette Shiner, associate US trade representative, said in a statement.—AFP