991123 EU to Outline Beef Hormone Proposal SoonNovember 9, 1999Washington - The European Union will outline in “a few days” its proposal for resolving a decade-old beef trade dispute with the United States, French Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany said. Speaking with reporters after a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, Glavany declined to provide any details on the long-awaited plan, saying that was the task of European Union officials. But with the launch of a new round of world trade talks just three weeks away, the U.S. and EU must address both the beef dispute and a second trade fight over bananas “rigorously so as to avoid polluting the rest of the negotiations,” Glavany said, speaking through a translator. Following his third meeting with Glickman since July, the man who was once quoted as saying the United States had the “worst food in the world” adopted a concilatory tone. Glavany denied ever having criticized American food, and even went so far as to acknowledge that French food is sometimes “not so nice.” In the 10-year-old beef trade battle, the World Trade Organization gave the U.S. permission this summer to impose $116.8 million in retaliatory duties on EU products because of the EU's continued refusal to lift its ban on beef from cattle raised with artificial growth hormones. Growth hormones have been approved for use in the U.S. and Canadian cattle industry for decades. In recent weeks, U.S. cattlemen have indicated interest in replacing the retaliation with a temporary compensation package from the EU, possibly in the form of increased market access for U.S. beef from cattle raised without growth hormones. As an EU member, France would support whatever the EU proposes to resolve the beef row, Glavany said. “It's a few days away, really. As we said, it is important to try and de- pollute the debate... prior to the negotiations in Seattle,” he said, referring to a WTO ministerial meeting at the end of the month to launch a new world trade talks. EU officials have said they would make proposals in both the beef and the banana dispute before the Seattle meeting. On another subject, Glavany said recent U.S. approval of a $8.7 billion aid package for farmers would “not necessarily” hurt the U.S. negotiating position going into the WTO talks. The issue for those negotiations is not whether countries have a right to subsidize their farmers, but which types of subsidies are legitimate and which put a “negative weight on international trade,” he said. Glavany also told reporters Europeans want to know if the food they eat contains genetically modified ingredients such as new crop varieties that account for half of U.S. soybean acreage and one third of U.S. corn. “Our belief, and our will also, is to have...a stream to identify clearly what are GMO products and what are not GMO products in order to give consumers the choice,” he said. The U.S. has opposed mandatory labeling of food products with GMOs on the grounds they are not materially different from traditional ingredients. However, the Clinton Administration has responded to rising consumer concerns about the new generation of crops by launching a review of its regulatory approval processes. Glavany was scheduled to meet the chairmen of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees and other adminstration officials before returning to France on Wednesday.
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