June 15, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1423

BERLIN, June 14: German Economy Minister Werner Mueller welcomed on Friday a US decision to exempt some German steel products from hefty import duties but said it did not go far enough and the EU would continue to contest the duties.

Mueller said in a statement the US had granted exemptions to 19 German steel makers covering around 35,000 tons of exports, but noted this compared with 100 requests for exemptions, covering 900,000 tons of exports.

The first exemptions for German companies from the US duties are a positive signal, Mueller said.

I expect that the US government will continue to assess positively German requests because it is completely clear that the imposition of the steel duties is harmful, not least for the US economy itself, he added.—Reuters