The European Union has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) for permission to levy sanctions against the United States in a trade row, the European Commission said.
The sanctions, which could run to hundreds of millions of dollars of duties on US goods, aim to force Washington to revoke a scheme under which local companies benefit when anti-dumping duties are imposed on foreign competitors.
"Given the lack of compliance from the US, the EU has today requested WTO authorisation to impose sanctions," the EU executive Commission said in statement.
The WTO has repeatedly ruled the measure, known as the Byrd amendment, illegal.
The United States said this evening it will fight an effort by the European Union and seven other trading partners to impose potentially hundreds of million dollars in sanctions on American exports for failure to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling.
But EU Trade Commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy said it was clear that the US rule was incompatible with the WTO requirements and had to be thrown out.
He said countries were entitled to use "trade defence instruments" but they had to follow WTO rules.
"I hope the US will now take action to remove this measure, thus avoiding the risk of sanctions."
The Commission is seeking WTO backing to slap its own extra import duties on US products, in proportion to the excess subsidies Brussels says are being given to American companies from the proceeds of the illegal anti-dumping duties being charged on Europe's exports.
Mr Lamy said the amount of sanctions and a list of which products would be targeted by the Commission would be defined "at a later stage", assuming clearance for sanctions is granted by the WTO.
Today's request will be discussed by a WTO disputes meeting on January 26th.