GENEVA (AP) -- The European Union said Tuesday it was weighing whether to appeal a World Trade Organization ruling that condemned the bloc for illegally collecting tariffs on billions of dollars worth of high-tech exports from the United States, Japan and Taiwan.
EU spokesman Patrizio Fiorilli said officials were still studying Monday's decision.
Brussels has until Sept. 25 to appeal the WTO verdict, which found that the 27-nation union broke trade rules by levying duties on flat-panel computer monitors, cable and satellite boxes that can access the Internet, and printers that can also scan, fax and copy.
Those products should be accepted tax-free under a 1996 agreement on information technology equipment, according to the U.S., Japan and Taiwan, which brought the case to the Geneva-based trade arbiter in 2008.
The global trade referee can authorize punitive sanctions against countries that continue to break trade rules -- but usually only after years of litigation.
The duties, which are as high as 14 percent, make U.S. exports less competitive in Europe, according to the Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington-based trade association. The group's members include Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
Leading manufacturers of flat-panel computer displays include Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard.
Washington said the entire dispute covers a global export market that was worth $44 billion last year.
"This is an important victory for U.S. technology manufacturers and workers, as well as the millions of consumers who use these products every day at work and at home," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.
Taiwan is hoping that the ruling will help its flat-screen panel makers compete against LG Display and Samsung Electronics Co., which enjoy duty-free panel exports to Europe under an EU-South Korean free trade agreement.
Brussels says it wants to update the 1996 IT agreement with new negotiations, so that it covers new products that have since entered the market.
Fiorilli repeated that argument Tuesday, saying in a telephone interview that the list of covered goods in the 14-year-old accord is "outdated."
"The more we wait, the more cases of conflict we'll have," he said.
But the claimants are pressing for immediate action.
"Changes in technology are not an excuse to apply new duties to products," Kirk said.