Brussels, 30/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 January, the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament gave its green light to planned EU concessions drafted by the Commission to put an end to the ongoing dispute with the United States and Canada on the trade in hormone-treated beef.
If, on 13 March, the Parliament as a whole approves the draft as amended by rapporteur Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl (EPP, Germany), the regulation will allow third countries to sell 48,200 tonnes of high-quality beef from cattle not treated with growth hormone to the EU at zero rates of duty. The increase in the import quota was agreed during bilateral conciliation negotiations and in memorandums of understanding already concluded with the United States and China. The new tariff quota for imports will enter into force in August 2012.
In exchange, the United States and Canada have already suspended import duties, in the order of $130 million, on EU agricultural products on a blacklist. The suspension of this duty, which currently hits France, Germany, Denmark and Italy the hardest, will allow these countries and the other member states to sell chocolate, pork, roquefort cheese, mustard, onions and truffles, and several other products, at competitive prices.
The transatlantic dispute, which came about in 1988 when the EU banned imports of beef from hormone-treated animals, led to a complaint to the WTO by the US and Canada in 1996. These two countries, which were authorised to put in place trade sanctions against agricultural products imported from the EU, imposed retaliatory measures between 1999 and 2011, in the form of customs duties on a large range of European products, for a total of US$116.8 million and Canadian $11.3 million a year respectively. (EH/transl.fl)