WTO to rule on EU hormone import ban
The World Trade Organisation has set up two complaints panels after the European Union challenged US and Canadian trade sanctions against the EU ban on growth hormone-treated beef. According to the EU, neither country had removed extra duties on its products although Brussels had modified its rules on beef imports more than a year ago to comply with a WTO ruling in 1998.
The WTO ruled in 1999 that Washington and Ottawa could slap higher tariffs on a list of EU products after it condemned the EU for banning the use of certain growth-promoting hormones used by the US and Canada to treat cattle without a scientific assessment of the risk.
The EU claims its ban on imports of growth hormone-treated beef had been updated in a 2003 law following a full scientific assessment which found that consumption of a certain type of hormone was harmful to human health. The evidence on five other hormones was insufficient but warranted a provisional ban on marketing meat containing those substances because of the uncertainty, according to the EU. However, both the USA and Canada have rejected or raised doubts about the validity of the proof presented by Brussels to back up its claim.
