US challenges EU hormone ban

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that the Obama administration will take the first steps in reinstating trade action against the EU for banning US hormone-treated beef from sale in the EU.

This reignites a decades-old dispute on banning US hormone-treated beef in which the WTO ruled against the EU in 1998 as there was no scientific evidence to support the ban. The US was authorised by the WTO to introduce sanctions of additional tariffs against EU products coming into the US.

In 2009, agreement was reached between the US and EU to allow up to 50,000t of non-hormone-treated beef into the EU primarily from the US but extending to other countries as well.

Other countries accessing this quota caused frustration in the US, but the matter hasn’t come to a head until now as it was thought the TTIP negotiations on a wider US-EU trade deal would address this issue.

These negotiations have reached an impasse in recent months, with both sides blaming each other and that was before the thorny issue of agriculture had received any meaningful discussion. This move by the Obama administration in its closing days could reignite a thorny issue from two decades ago.

What happens next?

The USTR is acting on a request from the US beef industry and has scheduled a public hearing.

It is seeking public comments in connection with the EU’s ban on most US beef products as a first step in reinstating the trade action (additional tariffs) which were suspended in the 2009 agreement.

It said: “An interagency committee of trade experts and economists will participate in the hearing and review public comments on the particular products and EU member states that may be subject to the imposition of additional duties, with the goal of resolving this dispute.”