Brussels - The European Union's executive body proposed three options for complying with a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that its ban on imports of hormone-treated beef broke trade rules.
The options, contained in a policy document approved by the European Commission on Wednesday, included compensating the United States for lost beef exports, making the import ban temporary, or lifting the ban and introducing labeling of hormone-treated beef, the Commission said.
The Commission said the proposed measures would be temporary until scientific studies were available on possible risks to humans from eating hormone-treated beef.
The EU executive did not recommend any of the three options. It simply sent its three options to EU member governments and the European Parliament, asking those bodies to “urgently engage in a debate on the matter to decide on the most appropriate EU strategy,” a Commission statement said.
The Commission also said it would start talks with the United States and Canada, which has backed Washington in the dispute, “in order to evaluate the merits of these options and in particular to explore the feasibility of compensation.”
The United States has urged the EU to lift the 10-year-old ban on imports of hormone-treated beef after the WTO ruled against the EU last year. The EU insisted it only had to complete new “risk assessment” studies of hormone- treated beef before the May 13 deadline set by the WTO.
The Commission recognized this week that results from some of the studies it has ordered will not be available in time for the May 13 deadline, forcing it to consider temporary solutions until the scientific results are available.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Return to Home Page