On Tuesday 27 March, the European Commission launched a consultation of the stakeholders concerning its plans to renegotiate the memorandum of understanding concluded in 2009 between the EU and the United States in the framework of their dispute at the WTO on Europe's ban on imports of hormone beef and which opened an import tariff quota of 45,000 tonnes of hormone-free beef meat for the United States and other supplier countries such as Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Canada.
The initiative does not seek to amend the current arrangement between the EU and the US, which the EU fully respects in letter and spirit, nor to provide a derogation to the European standards in force, such as the ban on imports of hormone beef, but to take account of concerns recently expressed by the American administration and to consider adjustments to the interim agreement revised in 2014 (see EUROPE 11010), the Commission explains.
By request of the US beef meat industry, which does not feel that the degree of openness of the European market corresponds to its expectations, arguing that other suppliers have increased their share of the quota, the services of the US Trade Representative (USTR) launched a consultation in December 2016 on reintroducing retaliatory measures hitting European agri-food products to the tune of €116.8 million.
Against a backdrop of considerable transatlantic trade tension due to the controversy over the hike in American customs duty on steel and aluminium (see EUROPE 11990) and keen to head the US off from reviving the old hormone beef conflict, the Commission is reported to be considering seeking a mandate from the Council of the EU to negotiate a compromise earmarking a share of 35,000 tonnes out of the 45,000 tonne quota for the US.
This project, which was recently discussed at a meeting between the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, and the American Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, could come up against the opposition of the other supplier countries, with the exception of Canada, which is benefiting from the phasing-in of an annual import tariff quota of 45,480 tonnes of hormone-free beef meat to the EU under the free-trade agreement (CETA), which has been in force since September 2017. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)