CRS Report on EU-Beef Hormone Dispute Says 2009 Agreement Being Phased In
The Congressional Research Service has issued a report providing the history of theU.S. - European Union Beef Hormone Dispute (R40449).
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.
CRS states that the U.S. and the European Union (EU) have engaged in a long-standing and acrimonious trade dispute over the EU’s decision to ban hormone-treated meat. Despite an ongoing series of dispute settlement proceedings and decisions by the World Trade Organization (WTO), there was continued disagreement between the U.S. and the EU on a range of legal and procedural issues, as well as the scientific evidence and consensus concerning the safety of hormone-treated beef. To date, the EU continues to ban imports of hormone-treated meat and restricts most meat exports to the European Union to a limited quantity of beef imports that are certified as produced without the use of hormones.
In May 2009, following a series of negotiations, the U.S. and the EU agreed to a settlement that could resolve this long-standing trade dispute. The terms of this agreement will be phased in over the next few years.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 09/22/09 news, 09092205, for most recent BP summary of this dispute in which the U.S. fulfilled the first phase of the agreement and canceled the pending expansion of 100% retaliatory duty modification.)