Geneva - World Trade Organization chief Renato Ruggiero on Thursday named two Latin American experts to arbitrate over the outcome of a long-running U.S.-EU “beef hormone” dispute, diplomats said.
Julio Lacarte of Uruguay and Celso Laffer of Brazil will have to decide how long the European Union has to implement WTO rulings that its decade-old ban on imports of meat treated with growth hormones is not in line with trading rules.
Ruggiero was called in after the two trade powers failed to agree on a time-frame for implementation and then on who should arbitrate on the issue.
Lacarte is a former chairman of the WTO's Appellate Body and an experienced trade diplomat and lawyer. Laffer is Brazil's ambassador to the WTO and a past chairman of its ruling General Council.
Normally they would be expected to make their decision by mid-May, but trade sources said this would probably be postponed until after the WTO's second Ministerial Meeting, to be held in Geneva from May 18- 20.
The hormone affair has been complicated by disagreement between Washington and Brussels on the meaning of findings handed down in February by the Appellate Body -- the WTO dispute settlement system's final port of appeal.
A three-man board -- which did not include Lacarte -- disagreed with aspects of the ruling of an initial panel which came down clearly against the EU.
Brussels insists the board's findings mean it simply has to carry out scientific tests proving that there is a risk to humans in eating hormone-treated beef, while leaving the import ban in place.
But Washington argues the combined rulings of the initial panel and the appeals board mean the ban -- which U.S. farmers say is costing them $250 million a year in lost sales -- must be lifted immediately.
The EU says it needs the “reasonable period of time” allowed under WTO accords to implement the findings and has indicated it wants this to be up to four years.
This would allow two years to carry out the studies, called a “risk assessment,” and two more years to incorporate the outcome into legislative or regulatory action.
The United States says 10 months from publication of the Appellate Body's findings is enough.
In previous trade disputes that have reached this stage, 15 months has been generally accepted as the most reasonable time-frame.
The case is one of the most high-profile disputes between the two powers in the three-year-old trade body.
Together with continued squabbling over EU implementation of panel findings that its banana import policies break the body's rules, the hormone row has sparked U.S. accusations that Brussels is trying to wriggle out of its commitments in the WTO.
The United States was supported in the case by Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Norway, which has a similar ban in place, came in on the side of the EU.
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