Paris - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said a meeting with EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler on the sensitive issue of hormone-treated beef had contained "some good give and take."
Glickman acknowledged there were still "differences in interpretation" over what recent WTO ruling meant and said the U.S. would object to what it saw as delaying tactics over the EU's view that it had to now just carry out an assessment of the risk to human health from eating hormone-treated beef.
"We do not want to see the situation drag on for ever and ever using risk assessment mechanisms or other things to delay the implementation of the decision," Glickman told journalists.
However, he added he still expected the EU to comply with a WTO ruling, which the U.S. has interpreted as obliging the EU to lift its import block immediately.
"We expect the EU to comply with the ruling," he said.
He also said that he and Fischler had made "positive progress" on a separate long-running trade dispute over meat inspection standards that analysts have said could free up transatlantic tade worth $3 billion a year.
Glickman and Fischler met for private talks on the fringes of an OECD meeting of agriculture ministers.
EU officials have interpreted the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation ruling as allowing it continue with its import block, with strong backing from consumer lobby groups, until the outcome of a risk assessment is clear.
Under the terms of the WTO ruling, issued in mid-February, the EU has to announce by March 13 what it intends to do.
"We'll be watching what they say very closely on the deadline date," one of Glickman's trade advisors told Reuters.
Beef farmers in the United States have said losses from not being able to export to Europe have amounted to billions of dollars in the decade since the ban was imposed.
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