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EU misses beef deadline
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May 13, 1999: 8:28 a.m. ET
U.S. threatens sanctions after Brussels fails to meet WTO call to allow imports
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LONDON (CNNfn) - The European Union failed to meet a deadline Thursday to end a controversial ban on U.S. beef imports, but sought to head off an escalation in the long-running trade dispute.
However, U.S. trade officials quickly grabbed the opportunity to threaten unspecified sanctions on millions of dollars of EU exports in a repeat of the long-running dispute between the two sides over banana imports.
The World Trade Organization last year ordered the EU to lift the ban by May 13, but trade officials in Brussels maintained the time scale was not feasible. The EU, which accepted the WTO ruling, said it wanted to start talks with its U.S. counterparts but is looking to pay compensation rather than suffer U.S. tariffs.
The EU lost a WTO appeal against its ban but insists that scientific tests on the effect of hormone-treated beef on consumers could not be completed in time to lift the ban.
The dispute highlights the difficulty which trade regulators have in dealing with cases in which science intrudes. "This doesn't mean that [the EU members] are not playing with the science," said Kirsty Hughes, head of the international policy institute at the London School of Economics.
The EU has also threatened to extend the ban to imports of supposedly non-treated beef after claiming to have found traces of hormones in these shipments. The additional ban could start as early as June 25, said EU officials
The WTO's ability to meet U.S. claims for compensation remains limited by the failure of members to agree on a new director general, with two candidates still vying for the top spot. The tenure of its deputy director generals have also expired, bringing decision making to a halt.
"This is an organization without a neck as well as a head," said one WTO official.
-- from staff and wire reports
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