-- Japan is considering filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization against a U.S. trade law that allows Washington to periodically retarget retaliatory sanctions against offending trade partners, trade sources said Thursday.
Japan is reportedly weighing the move after the U.S. rejected its request to participate, as a nonlitigious third party, in a trade dispute between the U.S. and the European Union over the so-called carousel clause.
The Japanese envoy to the WTO, Koichi Haraguchi, told a WTO session Thursday that Japan reserves the right to file a petition after U.S. envoy Rita Hayes turned down Tokyo's request for "third party" participation, trade sources said.
The dispute focuses on Section 407 of the 2000 U.S. trade law, which allows the U.S. government to revise every six months the retaliation list of products subject to punitive U.S. duties.