According to US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, negotiations to review tariff quotas for imports of high quality US beef from animals not treated with certain growth hormones are hampered by unrealistic "European demand".
"What we thought was going to be a very straightforward negotiation to restore our ability to sell hormone-free beef has now been complicated by an EU demand", he told a trio of journalists, including EUROPE, on Friday 7 December (see other article).
“They know that that demand will result in us not being able to sell [our beef]", the U.S. ambassador added, but did not specify the content of the request. It could probably relate to European health requirements.
"That’s an unworkable demand that they know we would never agree to, when in fact, it was supposed to be one of those sort of friendly gestures to get this process moving, that was made during the July 25th [meeting] in Washington", he concluded, referring to the joint statement by Presidents Juncker and Trump (see EUROPE 12071). This approach is part of Europe's commitment to explore ways to deepen sanitary relations with the United States.
When questioned by EUROPE, the European Commission did not wish to comment on these statements.
These talks, launched on 23 October, had made rapid progress, according to European sources (see EUROPE 12124). Washington seemed on track to obtain about 30,000 tons of the existing 45,000-tonne tariff quota. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel with Camille-Cerise Gessant)