WTO to Rule Against EU in Long-Running Beef Hormone Dispute

The World Trade Organization will rule against the European Union next week in a dispute over beef treated with hormones, The Associated Press learned Friday, allowing the U.S. and Canada to keep in place millions of dollars in sanctions on European products.
 
Brussels argues that the hormones pose a risk to human health. But Canada and the U.S. have successfully challenged the 27-nation bloc at the WTO, which ruled in 1998 that the ban was not based on solid scientific evidence.

A year later, the global commerce group authorized Washington and Ottawa to impose $125 million worth of retaliatory duties each year on European delicacies such as Roquefort cheese, truffles and Dijon mustard. The sanctions remain in force.

The WTO's latest panel decision, which will be made public on Monday, was released confidentially to the parties involved in December. It upholds that the EU failed to properly assess the risks before banning certain hormones in beef imports, according to an official summary obtained by the AP.

In response to previous WTO rulings, the EU passed legislation to permanently ban the use of the hormone oestradiol 17b in meat products for consumption, based on independent research. The EU's new rule, which took effect in October 2004, also provisionally banned five other growth-promoting hormones, including testosterone, progesterone and zeranol.

The panel will rule that EU assessments of oestradiol 17b fail to show a direct link between a risk of cancer and consumption of hormone-treated beef. It says the five provisional bans are also illegal because the EU has failed to prove that there is too little scientific evidence to undertake proper risk assessments.

Read the full Associated Press story here.