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December 4
Steelworkers in Europe feared the tariffs would cost thousands of jobs
2003: US pulls back from steel trade war
England have
The US President, George W Bush, has withdrawn a punitive tax on imported
steel to avoid a damaging trade war between the United States and Europe.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) last month turned down a US appeal
against its July ruling that the duties, imposed in March 2002, are illegal.
Mr Bush justified them by saying foreign steel firms were driving US firms
out of business with unfair competition and government subsidies.
The EU was planning sanctions worth $2.2bn in retaliation against the move,
but says they will now be dropped.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, reading a statement on behalf of Mr
Bush, said: "These safeguard measures have now achieved their purpose and, as a
result of changed economic circumstances, it is time to lift them."
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the tariff decision had been
made independently of the EU"s threat of retaliation.
At no stage did the US administration admit it had acted illegally in
breaching WTO rules.
On hearing the tariffs were being dropped, the EU Trade Minister Pascal
Lamy said: "This is good news for us.... The important thing is that this sort
of thing should not happen again."
It is believed that pressure from the British Prime Minister Tony Blair
during Mr Bush"s controversial visit to London last month was instrumental in
convincing him to lift the tariffs.
The tariffs, which added up to 30% to the cost of a range of imported steel
products, were originally imposed to satisfy an election pledge Mr Bush made to
steel bosses and workers.
The US blamed cheap imports for the bankruptcy of 31 steel firms since
1997, with 20,000 job losses.
But the EU - which had also suffered 22,200 job losses over four years at
the time - said it had not resorted to such measures while it was forced to
restructure.
President Bush may now face a backlash from those workers who said he
promised to keep the tariffs in place for three years.
Dr Wiseman says the long-term health effects of the pill are not known
1961: Birth control pill available to all
Artificially 1969:
The Women who wish to have oral contraception will now be able to get it on
the National Health Service.
The Health Minister, Enoch Powell, made an announcement in the House of
Commons today but did not give any guidelines as to whom the pill should be
given.
"It is not for me to indicate to doctors when they should decide for
medical reasons to prescribe for their patients," he said.
However some GPs are in a dilemma over whether they can prescribe the Pill,
as it is commonly known, for social as well as medical reasons.
Several companies are busy manufacturing the product in Britain which will
cost the NHS just over one shilling a pill - 17s a month.
And some politicians are anxious that the drug could be a huge financial
burden on the Treasury which currently spends ?0m a year on drugs provided by
the health service.
The oral contraceptive is a combination of a synthetic hormones oestrogen
and progestogen taken to prevent conception by hampering monthly release of an
egg cell from the ovary .
Pills have to be regularly in order to work and some physicians are
concerned about the effects the drug could have on the body"s delicate balance
of hormones.
Sir Charles Dodds, Britain"s leading expert on the drugs contained in the
Pill and who heads a research institute at Middlesex Hospital, has said the
pills could have long-term side-effects.
He compared a woman"s body with a clock mechanism. "Even if you thoroughly
understand the mechanism of a clock, provided it is going well it is very much
better to leave it alone. To interfere with it fi you do not understand it can
be disastrous," he said.
The Family Planning Association, which runs clinics all over Britain, is
still deciding whether or not to gives the go-ahead to its physicians to issue
the Pill to married women.
Two scientists at Birmingham University will carry out basic experiments on
the Pill because it is not fully understood how it works.
In the current issue of the Queen"s Medical Magazine, Birmingham Medical
School"s journal, they write: "Much careful quantitative work remains to be done
before the biological action of these drugs is understood and before any
recommendations of these drugs for routine use by the medical profession."
Vocabulary:
ovary: the organ that bears the ovules of a flower(卵巢) |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:19:34