The European Union has ring-fenced 35,000t of its hormone-free beef quota for imports from the US, phased over a seven-year period.

The remaining 10,000t of quota will be left available for other exporters.

The news follows a dispute that has been running since the 1990s.

When the EU imposed a ban on the use of growth-promoting hormones in beef production in 1988, the US brought an action to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The WTO ruled in favour of the US against the EU ban on hormone-treated beef from the US. The US was authorised to charge retaliatory tariffs on EU exports to the US, which were in place for the next decade.

The EU and US reached agreement in 2009 whereby the EU would create a tariff-free quota of 45,000t of hormone-free beef access to the EU.

Initially, the US was the only country in a position to avail of this, but as it was open to everyone, in time Argentina, Canada, Australia, Uruguay and New Zealand availed of the quota.

Now Australia and New Zealand are in the process of negotiating their own separate free trade agreements with the EU.