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Ex-WTO chief: US showed restraint on steel in '90s

WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The United States could have a tough time proving it was justified in imposing hefty steel tariffs earlier this year, but might have won at the World Trade Organization if it had acted earlier, the former WTO director general said on Thursday.

Mike Moore, who recently stepped down as head of the WTO, said the United States should be praised for the restraint it showed in the late 1990s, when the Asian financial crisis threw a flood of steel imports onto its shores.

"At the height of the Asian crisis, there was a surge and it was dramatic. And (former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert) Rubin made a political decision not to take on a case that historically I think he might have won," Moore, from New Zealand, said.

By the time the Bush administration acted in March, imports had subsided so much that it probably will be difficult for the United States to prove conditions warranted imposing the "safeguard" tariffs, he said in an interview.

Such restrictions are allowed under WTO only if a country can demonstrate an absolute surge in the level of imports.

Other countries, noting U.S. imports have fallen more recently, have challenged the steel tariffs at the WTO. A preliminary decision is expected next year

The Bush administration argues there was a surge in steel imports based on data for 1996 through 2000, when Asian nations moved to export their way out of crisis after currency devaluations.

"It might be difficult at the moment to prove a surge. However, this is where America may be punished for one of the great acts of statesmanship," Moore said.