Brussels, 14/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 March, the European Parliament approved the regulation increasing the autonomous tariff quota for imports of high-quality bovine meat, a text which will allow the EU to put an end to the old dispute with the United States and Canada over the trade in hormone-treated beef (see EUROPE 10542). This agreement will allow the EU to keep in place the ban on importing beef from cattle which have been treated with hormones, in exchange for an increase in quotas for imports of high-quality beef from the United States and Canada.
In its adoption (650 votes in favour, 11 against and 11 abstentions) of the report by Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl (EPP, Germany), the EP has approved a regulation which increases the annual Community tariff quota for imports into the EU of high-quality American and Canadian beef from cattle which have not been treated with growth hormones, from 20,000 tonnes at the moment to 48,200 tonnes. The new tariff quota for imports will enter into force in August this year.
These texts constitute “a crucial stage in putting an end to a dispute which has lasted a decade”, said Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos. The United States has removed sanctions on certain EU products, whilst the EU is offering significant access to its market for beef without hormones.
The commissioner said that exports of European veal and beef to the United States remained blocked due to American restrictions related to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). He said that these restrictions do not comply with OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) rules. José Bové (Greens/EFA, France) noted with satisfaction that internationally, “the dispute has been closed without the EU being required to change the sanitary standards it applies internally in order to protect its consumers. It has not had to come into line with the lowest common denominator as the WTO tried to make it, through two decisions it took and which condemned it.” Agnès Le Brun and Tokia Saïfi, of the EPP said: “This is a victory for European diplomacy, but above all it is a victory for respect for European consumers. The United States and Canada have failed to impose hormone-treated beef on us - the Europeans did not want it. The sanctions were not enough to make us change our minds.” (LC/transl.fl)