Geneva - The United States told the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Body that the European Union should promptly drop a ban on imports of hormone terated beef.
U.S. ambassador Rita Hayes was speaking to the WTO after a European Union official said Brussels only planned to carry out an assessment of risks to humans from eating beef treated with growth hormones.
"The EC has had several opportunities to present scientific evidence to support its ban," Hayes told the DSB meeting. "During the more than ten years that the ban has been in effect, the EC has been unable to produce the required evidence."
The EU's statement to the DSB, an outline of which was issued earlier in the day in Brussels, said the ban would stay in place while the risk assessment was carried out.
Brussels had until Friday to tell the WTO how it would implement rulings by a dispute panel and an appeals board which found fault with the ban, which U.S. and Canadian meat exporters say is costing them billions of dollars every year.
Hayes said compliance with these rulings "requires the EC to withdraw its ban."
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