Brussels, 06/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is examining the legality of the unilateral sanctions that the United States has imposed on the import of prepared mustard in the framework of the transatlantic dispute over hormone-treated meat. This is the very first time that America's retaliatory policy is in Brussels' line of fire, from the Regulation of Obstacles to Trade (ROT) point of view. The investigation, launched on 1 August, is for now limited to the discrimination inflicted on mustard makers in fourteen of the Fifteen Member States - the exception being the United Kingdom - but it could then extend to other products that seem affected in the same way. The decision was notified to Washington and published, in the form of a Notice, in the Official Journal No C/215.
The Fédération des industries condimentaires de France (FICF) points out, in a complaint it lodged in June, that the suspension of American trade concessions on mustard originating from certain European countries is contrary to the rules and procedures of dispute settlement in the WTO and the GATT of 1994. These measures, taken with Geneva's benediction, indeed come within the framework of an affair opposing the United States and the Union as such, say the French producers. "The practice consisting in requesting measures against all Member States then only to apply them to some of them is prejudicial to the predictability of the dispute settlement mechanism and, consequently, the multilateral trading system as a whole.", the Commission sources explain, going further: "FICF's complaint raises serious questions as to the conformity of the suspension of trade concessions implemented by the United States of America with the authorisation granted by the Dispute Settlement Council and as to the status of the Community's membership of the WTO", say commission sources. According to them, it is clear "that the plaintiff has provided sufficient elements of proof of the non-conformity of the measures being disputed with American obligations", in virtue of the rules invoked by the spokesman of the French association. The latter claims to have "suffered unfavourable trade effects (…) that risk worsening in future"", being, among other things "forced" to sell their products on the other side of the Atlantic "at considerably higher prices than before the measures were introduced, which penalises trade". "These unfavourable effects on trade have a material effect on a specific region, here Bourgogne, region of France that produces most of the exported mustard", notes the Commission which is sharpening its weapons, stressing that "it is in the Community's interest to attack the American practices that can represent a systematic threat to the Community's role in the WTO and seriously affect the EC's cohesion and solidarity, any exclusion of one Member State from the suspension of trade concessions inevitably leading to an increased burden for the rest".
In principle, the investigation will last five months, a deadline that may be extended, "should there be need", for an additional two-moth period. Should it transpire that the American sanctions pose an unfair obstacle to trade and cause harm to European traders, the ROT process may lead to transatlantic consultations or, without an amicable solution, a WTO intervention, or in the long-term European counter-reprisals, the end-goal being the pure and simple removal of the obstacles identified.