Güncelleme Tarihi:
"We made a real effort to find out and they were entirely uncommunicative," said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents
But "I came away with a very clear impression that something is going to happen, that doing nothing is not a choice here," Reinsch said.
"We've been telling them to think very carefully before acting and move very cautiously and whatever you do, make sure that it's multilateral, not unilateral," Reinsch said.
On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters the European Union was considering sanctions against
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the Bush administration was discussing whether to nix a civil nuclear pact with
"It is pretty evident that the European government and our own government are weighing options right now," said Mike Considine, director for Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "The situation is clearly at a serious level and they're trying to find the right way to respond to this."
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ROBUST TRADE GROWTH SINCE 2002
Trade between the
Petroleum products accounted for about $11 billion of
That does not include substantial trade in financial services, or money the two countries have plowed into each other's economies, said Gary Litman, vice president for Europe and
"
Any punitive
If the
The White House has warned one consequence for
But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials seemed prepared to walk away from the WTO earlier this week by announcing they wanted to withdraw from some of the commitments they had already made.
"If they decide they don't want to pursue WTO accession, we can't make them. If they pull out of something, I'm not sure that qualifies as a sanction," Reinsch said.
"I'm almost more worried about what they're going to do to themselves rather than what we're going to do to them."Â