001032 US Steps Up Negotiations With EU On Beef

Washington - U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the United States would intensify negotiations with the European Union over the next four weeks in hopes of settling heated disputes over the EU's beef and banana policies.

“What we're looking at right now is the next month and whether a settlement on bananas and beef is possible,” Barshefsky said.

If agreements cannot be reached, U.S. trade officials said they would have no choice but to rotate sanctions against European products, as required under trade legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton in May.

Under the so-called carousel legislation, the United States is required to rotate sanctions against a new list of EU goods every six months until the bloc complies with World Trade Organization (WTO) rulings against its ban on beef produced with artificial growth hormones and its restrictive banana import system.

The first changes to the $116.8 million beef list and the $191.4 million banana list had been expected on June 19. But months have passed and Clinton has yet to act, possibly in hope of currying EU favor in a separate dispute over a multibillion dollar program of tax breaks for American exporters.

But U.S. trade officials say the statute requires them to rotate the sanctions no later than November 18, unless agreements are reached on beef and bananas.

“Right now we're focusing not on carousel so much as on the question of whether within the next four weeks or so it is possible to see a settlement,” Barshefsky said.

“I would like to hope that we could reach a negotiated solution on those issues, and certainly will work to the end of the administration to try to accomplish that.” But she added: “I don't know if it's feasible.”

On Wednesday, the United States rejected the European Union's latest proposal for reforming its banana import system, saying it did not go far enough and may break WTO rules.

Fresh fruit seller Chiquita Brands International Inc. said it opposed the EU's proposal, under which licenses to import bananas would be awarded within certain quotas to operators who were in a position to bring their bananas into the European market first.

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