The European Commission called on the United States to end its "illegal tax breaks" for exporters in the wake of yesterday's decision to lift steel tariffs.
The EU has threatened to press ahead with $4 billion sanctions against the United States if the tax breaks allowed under the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) law are not stopped.
"We put one of our problems to bed yesterday evening," said commission spokeswoman Ms Arancha Gonzalez said. "We have some other ones that we still have to sort out," she said.
The WTO ruled in January last year that the FSC law flouted its rules by allowing thousands of US firms, operating through subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, to benefit from reduced export taxes.
Ms Gonzalez said there has been progress in the US Congress on complying with the WTO ruling, and noted that it is now in recess until January.
"We very much hope that progress will be made in the US congress so that compliance is there by March 1st," she said, noting that that is "the deadline . . . to see compliance from the US".
"Otherwise we would have no other alternative but to have the sanctions in place."