WASHINGTON, March 18: The United States accused Canada on Friday of shirking world trade rules in deciding to impose duties on imports of US corn and took the first step toward filing a World Trade Organization case on the matter.

The United States has requested WTO consultations with Canada concerning its provisional antidumping and countervailing duties on U.S. grain corn, the US Trade Representative’s office said in a statement.

Canada imposed import duties on US corn in December to offset what it said were unfairly low prices and government subsidies. The move was widely seen as tit-for-tat retaliation for U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber, which have strained trade relations for years.

The US request for consultations on the corn duties came the same day as the United States lost a NAFTA panel ruling in the longrunning lumber spat.

WTO rules require countries to determine if their domestic producers have been injured by unfair foreign competition before imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

In its injury finding in this case, the CITT (Canadian International Trade Tribunal) appears not to have considered a number of factors required by WTO rules, USTR said.

In addition, the CITT declined to examine relevant evidence that other factors, and not US imports, were injuring Canadian corn growers, such as exchange rate movements and unusually large world corn harvests. This would not appear to be consistent with WTO rules requiring that such evidence be taken into account, USTR said.

Imports of US grain corn into Canada have fallen by 42 per cent in the last two years, USTR said.

In the marketing year that ended in August 2005, the United States exported about $210 million of grain corn to Canada. The principal uses of grain corn are in animal feed, ethanol production, and distilled spirits.

WTO rules require trading partners to try to resolve issues between themselves before beginning formal dispute settlement proceedings. The consultation period lasts 60 days.

—Reuters