Canada, EU Reach Tentative Agreement in Hormone-Treated Beef Dispute
Canada and the European Union (EU) have signed a memorandum of understanding that tentatively settles a long trade dispute over hormone-treated cattle. According to the March 17, 2011, memorandum, European nations will expand market access to Canadian beef while Canada will suspend trade sanctions on $11 million worth of EU imports.
Effective since the early 1980s, EU’s “non-discriminatory” ban on hormone-treated beef was challenged by Canada and the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) starting in 1996, according to the European Commission (EC), the oversight body for EU legislation. In 1999, Canada and the United States were given WTO permission to impose retaliatory sanctions on a number of EU exports. Canada’s sanctions applied to a variety of meat products “in the form of 100% duties.”
“The memorandum foresees that Canada suspends these sanctions and the EU would extend its duty-free tariff-rate quota of high quality beef by an additional 1,500 tons until August 2012,” the EC said in a statement. “This quantity could be increased to 3,200 tons for the following year. Canada and the EU would then assess the situation and decide whether to reach a permanent settlement of the case. Both the suspension of sanctions and the increase to the EU tariff-rate quota remain subject to the domestic decision-making procedures.” See EC Press Release, March 17, 2010.
