US expects to settle transatlantic trade row

A senior US official said today he expects a long-running transatlantic trade dispute over tax breaks for American exporters to be resolved in the first quarter of next year.

“We have to move the legislation through Congress,” Commerce Under-secretary Grant Aldonas said in Brussels. “Congress is set to move on this in the first quarter of next year.”

The dispute centres on a set of tax breaks for US exporters that the World Trade Organisation has said violate international trade rules.

The European Union has warned it would start imposing sanctions on US exports by the start of next year unless Congress repeals the tax breaks, known as the Foreign Sales Corporation.

On the separate steel trade row, Aldonas denied reports that Washington was negotiating a compromise with the EU to avoid billions of pounds in European sanctions in a dispute over steel tariffs.

“I don’t know of any negotiations going on right now,” he said.