EC Order Meat Ban U.S. Vows Reprisal

The European Community said today it will go ahead Jan. 1 with a controversial ban on meat treated with hormones, prompting the U.S. ambassador to the EC to announce that the United States will impose retaliatory sanctions.

“We see no technical or political reason to delay the ban,” EC External Relations Commissioner Willy De Clercq told reporters after the decision by EC foreign ministers.

“If the ban goes ahead, we can assure you there will be almost instantaneous retaliation on our part,” Ambassador Alfred Hugh Kingon told reporters after EC foreign ministers endorsed the ban on imports of hormone-treated meat.

The EC says its ban responds to consumer health concerns, but Washington says that hormone-treated meat is not harmful and that the ban is a non-tariff trade barrier.

Kingon said Washington had been very disappointed that its call last week for a delay on the ban had been rebuffed. But he welcomed the EC ministers’ decision today to narrow the scope of the $150-million ban by excluding pet-food meat.

He played down the scale of the dispute, saying U.S. trade with the EC would amount to about $166 billion next year, against about $150-million worth of meat--”not trivial, but it should be kept in context,” he said.

Washington has said it will retaliate against the ban by raising tariffs on a range of EC produce exported to the United States.