April 1, 2008

 

WTO condemns the EU, US and Canada in beef trade row
 

 

The World Trade Organisation condemned the EU, US and Canada in a dispute regarding beef treated with growth hormones.

 

The WTO ruled that the EU was at fault because there is no scientific evidence validating its present justifications for an import ban.

 

The organisation also condemned the US and Canada for not following WTO procedures strictly by maintaining retaliatory measures against Brussels.

 

The row began in 1998 when the WTO ruled Washington and Ottawa could charge higher tariffs on several EU products after it condemned Brussels for banning beef treated with certain growth-promoting hormones without a scientific evaluation of the risk.

 

The US and Canada use the same type of growth promoter in beef production.

 

The EU said that these sanctions were no longer justified because it had found scientific evidence to validate their prohibition of hormone-treated beef and had updated its law in 2003.

 

According to the EU, its ban is based on a study that found eating a particular type of growth hormone is harmful to human health.

 

Brussels then filed two new complaints against the US and Canada for maintaining their retaliatory measures.

 

According to the ruling of WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, however, the scientific evidence evaluated by the EU did not back up the conclusions in the EU's risk assessment.

 

In addition, the WTO said that the US and Canada should have re-submitted their complaints when the EU updated its law in 2003 but that since the EU still did not comply, Ottawa and Washington were not deemed to have violated their own WTO commitments.

 

The US will be paid US$116.8 million, while Canada will receive US$11.3 million.

 

The penalties will be in the form of customs tariffs.