June 2, 2008

 

EU appeals WTO ruling on hormone treated meat

 

 

The EU yesterday began to appeal elements of the WTO panel decision of 31 March 2008 regarding the debate over US and Canadian exports of hormone treated meat.

 

The WHO panel decision had in fact condemned the US and Canadian sanctions imposed on EU exports in retaliation for EU restrictions on the import of hormone-treated meat, stating that they were in breach of WTO rules. 

 

Although the panel agreed with the EU that the US and Canada have illegally maintained retaliatory measures despite the fact that the EU adopted new rules on hormone-treated imports in 2003, it did not consider the new EU hormones directive to comply with the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, a fact which the EU is appealing against.

 

The panel also did not specify that the US and Canada must remove their WTO-illegal retaliatory measures.

 

The EU believes the panel erred in putting on the EU the burden to demonstrate the WTO-compatibility of its hormones directive.

 

The EU notes that the panel explicitly said that it did not have jurisdiction to rule on the WTO-conformity of the EU Directive establishing the restriction of hormone-treated meat imports and that its assessment did not change the fact that the US and Canada are applying sanctions illegally.

 

The EU has banned the use of growth-promoting hormones and the import of meat treated with hormones since the early 1980s.

 

This non-discriminatory ban was tested at the WTO by Canada and the US in 1996, claiming it was inconsistent with WTO rules. The WTO Appellate Body found in 1998 that the EU rules were not consistent with parts of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in as much as the scientific risk assessments supporting the EU restrictions were not sufficiently specific.

 

Subsequently, the US and Canada requested, and were granted by the WTO, authorisation to impose sanctions on the EU - a 100 percent import duty on EU exports which have since been in place from 1999.

 

In October 2003, a new EU Directive was adopted based on reports from the EU Scientific Committee which said there was substantial evidence that one of the six hormones promotes cancer and that it harms genes. The EU has a permanent ban on the use of this hormone for growth promotion purposes.

 

In five other cases, the current state of knowledge of the hormone substances does not allow the risk to be accurately determined, but there is evidence suggesting potential detrimental effects on human health, the EU said.

 

Based on this evidence, the EU invokes the precautionary principle, choosing to provisionally restrict the use of those five hormones in the EU, as well as the sale of hormone-treated meat.

 

The most recent opinion of the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) of 18 July 2007 concluded that there are no grounds to call for revision of the previous risk assessments.

 

The US and Canada rejected the EU evidence and maintained their sanctions. On 8 November 2004, the EU filed a request for consultations with Canada and the US, asserting that they should have removed their retaliatory measures. The two WTO panels that were subsequently established circulated their decision on 31 March 2008. The appeal that started today is likely to last until early autumn of 2008.