GENEVA (Reuters) - South Korea plans to push for trade sanctions against the United States in a dispute over tariffs on steel pipes, an agenda for a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting showed on Tuesday.
South Korea went to the WTO in 2014 to challenge U.S. tariffs levied on oil country tubular goods (OCTG), a type of steel piping used in the oil industry.
Washington said its tariffs aimed to stop South Korea exporting the product at unfairly cheap prices. After South Korea won a partial victory at the WTO, the United States had until July 12 to comply with that ruling.
South Korea has not published a figure for the amount of annual sanctions it may seek, but its OCTG exports to the United States were worth $818 million in 2013, benefiting from a boom in the U.S. shale oil and gas industry.
South Korea has put the request for sanctions on the WTO agenda for Aug. 9, but the United States is likely to contest that request, triggering a further round of legal wrangling.
The WTO system is designed to encourage parties to settle disagreement amicably, and the imposition of trade sanctions is a rare outcome.
But South Korea has previously used the system to get a sanctions award.
In February it won the right to impose annual sanctions worth $85 million on Washington after a dispute about washing machines.