GENEVA: The European Union on Monday requested authorisation at the World Trade Organisation to impose counter-measures to compensate for US customs duties on Spanish olive imports. The request was filed at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) after Washington challenged “the amount of retaliation proposed by the EU ($35 million annually)”, a Geneva-based trade official said. The EU request for DSB authorisation to impose counter-measures on imports from the United States is intended “to compensate for the US’s failure to comply with an earlier panel ruling faulting US anti-dumping and countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain”, the source said.