Last year, US trade officials considered imposing a 100 percent import duty on a variety of European products, including motorcycles displacing 51cc to 500cc, in response to the 15-country European Union£r ban on the importation of American beef treated with growth hormones. Imposing the duty would have doubled the price of those motorcycles in the United States.

But thanks to the efforts of the AMA and other motorcycle organizations, most notably the Motorcycle Industry Council and ABATE of Illinois, US trade officials removed motorcycles from the proposed tariff list. The United States did, however, impose 100 percent import duties on a variety of other European products ranging from beef to mustard to soup.

But now, a new federal law requires US officials to review that duty list to see whether changes should be made, and that means European motorcycles are once again being considered for new import duties. A committee representing various federal agencies will conduct the review and make recommendations to another inter-agency committee, which then will make recommendations to the US Trade Representative£r Office.

Last year, the AMA told federal trade officials that motorcycles had no place in a trade dispute over beef. Edward Moreland, the AMA£r Washington representative, told federal officials that the real losers in this dispute would be American buyers, and he asked them to remove motorcycles from the tariff list.

Federal officials have said they will consider those same comments in putting together new recommendations.

The World Trade Organization last year found that the European Union ban on American beef costs the United States $116.8 million a year in lost exports. That finding allowed the United States to impose a 100 percent duty on European goods equal to that amount. The United States imposed the duties beginning on July 29, 1999.