USTR Delays Remaining Modifications to 100% Duties in EU Beef Hormone Dispute Until August 15
In light of an "agreement in principle" recently reached with the European Union in the long-standing EU - beef hormones dispute, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that it will delay certain sanction modifications that were due to take effect May 9, 20091, in order to allow time for the provisional agreement to be finalized.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Specifically, the remaining modifications to the list of EU products and countries subject to 100% duties that were to take effect May 9, 20091 will be delayed until August 15, 2009, unless the agreement is finalized.
(On May 6, 2009, the U.S. and the EU announced they had reached a "provisional agreement" of three to four years duration and that they would discuss the agreement with their respective stakeholders in order to finalize it as soon as possible. See ITT's Online Archives or 05/07/09 news, 09050705, for BP summary.)
If Agreement Does Not Enter Into Force, Sanctions Will Take Effect August 15th
If the agreement in principle does not enter into force, the remaining modifications that were due to take effect May 9, 2009 will be effective with respect to products that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after August 15, 2009.
However, USTR states that assuming the agreement in principle enters into force, it intends to take further steps to prevent the application of the additional duties.
Agreement Calls for Maintaining Current Sanctions for 3 Years, Duty-free Access for Certain U.S. Beef
Under the agreement in principle, the current U.S. sanctions would remain in place for three years without revision, then be eliminated in the fourth year. In addition, the EU would provide duty-free access for 20,000-45,000 tons of U.S. high quality, hormone-free beef. Both sides would refrain from WTO litigation, and seek a longer-term agreement.
1In January 2009, the U.S. announced it would modify the list of EU products and countries subject to 100% duties in connection with the beef hormone dispute. These modifications were partially implemented on March 23, 2009 (i.e., those that deleted countries/products from the 100% duty list), with the remaining modifications initially delayed until April 23, 2009, and then later delayed to May 9, 2009, to allow more time for the U.S. and the EU to negotiate.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 04/23/09 news, 09042310, for BP summary of the USTR's delay of the remaining sanctions modifications to May 9, 2009, with links to previous summaries.)
| Roger Wentzel (Director, Agricultural Affairs) | (202) 395-6127 |
| David Weiner (Director, European Union) | (202) 395-4620 |
| William Busis (Associate General Counsel and Chair of the Section 301 Committee) | (202) 395-3150 |
USTR notice (FR Pub 05/13/09) available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-11173.pdf