EC Will Soon Ban Imports of Hormone-Treated Meat

The European Community on Monday agreed to go ahead with a ban on imports of hormone-treated meat as of Jan. 1 and tentatively adopted measures to counter any U.S. retaliation against its ban.

The United States has threatened retaliation against EC imports of, among others, boneless ham, canned tomatoes, fruit juices and alcoholic beverages. Italy, Denmark and Spain would be most affected by that.

The EC foreign ministers, meeting here Monday, accepted a recommendation by EC External Relations Commissioner Willy De Clercq not to postpone the ban again.

Late last year, the EC delayed the ban’s implementation until Jan. 1.

“We do not envisage a new delay as there were no political or technical reasons” to do so, De Clercq told reporters.

Expects to Take Steps

De Clercq said the ban will affect $130 million to $150 million of U.S. meat exports a year. U.S. estimates have put the figure at $170 million.

Alfred H. Kingon, the U.S. envoy to the EC, told reporters that trade retaliation against the ban was inevitable. “It is fair to assume we will do something in response. We are working on it.”

Kingon said the United States asked the EC on Friday to delay the ban for a brief period to allow a new U.S. Administration and a new EC executive commission, which both take office in January, to settle the dispute. He said he was disappointed that the EC did not have “the flexibility or the willingness” to grant the request.

De Clercq said the EC will exempt pet food from its ban imports of U.S. meat but added, “We do not expect the Americans to accept this.”

Figures Disagree

He repeated that the ban will be imposed for public health reasons. But the United States argues that the use of hormones to fatten animals poses no health risk and has said the pet food exemption did not remove its concerns.

The EC says pet food accounts for about half of the U.S. imports but U.S. officials say it represents only 30%.

The EC foreign ministers also tentatively agreed to counter any U.S. trade retaliation in reaction to the EC ban on meat imports, De Clercq said.

This would involve a 100% duty on U.S. exports to the EC of honey, unshelled nuts, dried fruit and canned corn that total $140.5 million a year. But De Clercq said a final decision will only be made after Washington retaliates against the EC hormone ban.

Depending on the extent of U.S. retaliation, other products might be added to the list, De Clercq said.

Seeks to Limit Damage

Speaking of recent meetings with U.S. officials to avert a transatlantic trade war over the hormone ban, De Clercq said “dialogue of the deaf” was continuing.

He said the EC was interested in limiting the damage of the conflict by finding ways to narrow the extent of a possible trade war.

In late November, De Clercq warned that U.S. retaliation against the EC ban would spark both retaliatory measures and action against the United States within the Geneva-based General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

The EC has said that its ban on hormone-treated meat is legal under the rules of GATT, the 96-nation world trade organization.