WASHINGTON, Dec 4: US President George W. Bush on Thursday scrapped controversial steel tariffs 16 months ahead of schedule to avert the threat of retaliation from Europe and Asia, risking a political backlash in battleground states in next year’s election.

Mr Bush offered little to cushion the blow to US steel makers, but said he would keep in place a system to licence and track steel imports “so that my administration can quickly respond to future import surges that could unfairly damage the industry.”

“These safeguard measures have now achieved their purpose, and as a result of changed economic circumstances, it is time to lift them,” the president said in a statement read by his spokesman.

The decision was a blow to struggling US steel makers and the United Steelworkers of America, a union representing nearly one million active and retired steelworkers. The union accused Bush of abandoning the industry’s workers and retirees, and said it would appeal to members of Congress for protection.

Mr Bush’s decision comes less than a month after the World Trade Organization’s highest court ruled that the tariffs violated global trade laws, and just before the EU planned to launch sanctions against $2.2 billion in US goods, including politically sensitive products like citrus from Florida and textiles from the Carolinas.

The major policy reversal on tariffs imposed in March 2002 could spark a backlash against Bush in the steel-producing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia in his re-election bid next year.—Reuters