March 21, 2011

Europe, Canada end beef dispute

Europe and Canada ended a long disagreement on Thursday (Mar 17) over Canada's hormone-treated beef, paving the way to normalising trade ties, stated the European Commission.

A statement said the two sides signed Thursday a memorandum of understanding under which the EU would extend its dutyfree tariff rate to high-quality Canadian beef imports, while Canada would suspend sanctions slapped on EU products.

"Today's memorandum is an important step in solving this long-running dispute," said John Clancy, an EU trade spokesman. "It will relieve EU exporters from the cost of paying sanctions on the Canadian market." Canada in 1999 imposed sanctions on imports of EU products, largely meat -mostly under the form of 100% duties-to the tune of more than US$11-million.

The memorandum foresees Canada suspending the measures and the EU extending its duty-free tariff-rate quota until August next year.