Brussels, 28/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Council has approved the prolongation of the second phase of the 2009 agreement on hormone-treated beef and US sanctions so as to clarify the modalities of the third phase.
On 21 October, the Council of the EU authorised the signature of a revised memorandum with the USA to prolong the second phase of implementing the 2009 agreement until August 2015 - an agreement which puts an end to the old transatlantic dispute on trading hormone-treated beef (see EUROPE 10542). This prolongation aims to clarify the modalities for the third phase, to amend the management of meat import licences as part of the European import quota, and to plan for the closure of the US complaint to the WTO in 1996.
Signed in May 2009, the EU-US memorandum of understanding - on the EU's ban on importing beef meat from hormone-treated animals and the US retaliatory measures hitting European products up to €116.8 million per year - provides for three phases. The first phase, implemented between August 2009 and August 2012, translated into the opening of an import quota in the EU of 20,000 tonnes of high quality beef (without hormones) and into a drop in the level of US sanctions. During the second phase, from 1 August 2012 until 1 August 2013, the European import quota was taken to 45,000 tonnes, and the US suspended all trade sanctions. The memorandum of understanding is due to expire if the parties do not agree on starting the third phase, but the obligations concerning the quota and the sanctions remain in force for six months further - in other words, until the end of January 2014. No compromise has been reached at this stage and the European Commission has therefore proposed that the two parties prolong the second phase until August 2015, while continuing discussions on the modalities for the third phase.
The Commission's proposal must obtain the approval of the European Parliament. (EH/transl.fl)