LUXEMBOURG, June 10: EU foreign ministers gave their go-ahead on Monday to a process that could lead to retaliatory sanctions against US tariffs on steel imports which have infuriated Washington’s trade partners.

The sanctions — including levies on US steel products, fruit juices, garments and gambling equipment — will not take effect immediately, but the European Commission will have to inform the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its intentions by June 18, at the latest.

Monday’s decision was unanimous, although it is subject to one technical hurdle — a nod from the Danish parliament, which was expected to emerge within a matter of days.

The Council of Ministers is sending a clear political signal, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy told journalists in Luxembourg. It’s a message of EU solidarity... We’re not upping the ante. We’re showing firmness.

The US and its trading partners are at loggerheads over safeguard tariffs of up to 30 per cent which President George W. Bush introduced in March to protect ailing US steel mills.

The EU and other steel-making nations in Europe, Latin America and Asia say the tariffs — which do not apply to Canadian steel — violate WTO rules, and they are challenging them at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.

Washington is lukewarm to Brussels calls for compensation on tariffs, preferring instead to make targeted exemptions. Last Friday it announced 61 such product exemptions.

Lamy, who negotiates trade issues on behalf of the 15 EU member states, said the sanctions — valued at 626 million euros — would depend on how negotations with the United States pan out.

Though the sanctions could be in place from June 18, he said, actual implementation would not begin until mid-July when EU foreign ministers would be asked for one last green light, he said.—AFP