990755 U.S. Wants Duties As Long As EU Bans Beef

Washington - Steep new U.S. duties on $116.8 million of European pork, mustard, foie gras and other food products will stay in place as long as the European Union maintains its ban on beef produced with artificial growth hormones.

“Our hope continues to be that the European Union will prefer not to have these penalties in effect and will sit down with the United States and work out a reasonable solution to this issue,” said Peter Scher, special U.S. ambassador for agricultural trade.

There has been no sign recently that the EU is interested in negotiating a settlement, Scher said. “It's unfortunate, but there hasn't been,” he said.

The EU also has ignored a U.S. offer to label the meat products so European consumers can decide for themselves whether to buy the products.

“What we're hearing is that they're not prepared to lift the ban. It doesn't make a lot of sense to label if you're not going to be able to actually sell the product,” Scher said.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that the EU's ban on hormone-raised beef violates international trading rules. The United States began steps toward retaliation after the EU failed to meet a May 13 deadline for lifting its ban.

“The EU is the only WTO member country not to abide by a WTO ruling,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said in a statement. “Every other member receiving an adverse judgment from the dispute-settlement process has abided by that decision.”

In a recent agricultural case, Japan moved to bring its fruit import policies in line with WTO rules. “Perhaps the EU could learn from the example of Japan,” Glickman said.

The 100-percent duties that went into effect on Thursday are aimed mainly at food products because the EU's decade-old ban on beef from cattle raised with artificial growth hormones hurts U.S. farmers and ranchers, Scher said.

If some EU industries are harmed now by the tariffs, “that's the rules of the game,” Scher said. “Their complaints should not be with the United States or U.S. cattlemen, but frankly it should be with their governments.”

The bulk of the duties fall on food products from France, Germany, Italy and Denmark -- four of the EU's most influential members. About $30 million of EU pork products will face retaliation. Foie gras, which is made from goose liver, Dijon mustard, Roquefort cheese, fruit juice, chocolate, tomatoes, truffles, yarn and lanolin are also on the list.

Although the duties will stay in effect “until this issue is resolved,” they should have little affect on most U.S. consumers because substitute products are available in the United States, Scher said.

Canada, which also uses growth hormones in its cattle production, is imposing 100-percent duties on about $7.5 million worth of EU beef, pork, cucumbers and gherkins in the dispute. Those duties go into effect on Aug. 1.

At the root of the dispute is the EU's refusal to abide by WTO rules which require food safety rules to be based on sound science, Scher said.

Decades of scientific testing has shown that there is no health risk from the use of artificial growth hormones in cattle production, he said.

In May, the EU released a preliminary “risk assessment” that concluded one of the artificial growth hormones -- estradiol -- could cause cancer. U.S. officials say the report was exaggerated and contained no new information.

A final EU study on the safety of hormone-raised beef is due at the end of the year.

U.S. officials have challenged the EU to say it will lift the ban if the report shows there is no health risk. On that point, there also has been no EU response, Scher said.

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