U.S. Looking Into European Meat Standards : Latest Action Threatens to Escalate Trade Dispute

The United States has begun preparing to fire another big salvo in its trade dispute with the European Community over Europe’s move Jan. 1 barring imports of American beef from animals treated with growth-inducing hormones.

In a move that could escalate the skirmish substantially, the Agriculture Department has sent a letter to major European governments questioning whether they have been maintaining proper standards in inspecting European meat that is being shipped to the United States.

Under U.S. law, the European Community will have until April 1 to show that its inspection standards for U.S.-bound meat exports are adequate--that is, equal to those used in the United States. If it cannot, Washington could bar all European meat imports, costing European exporters millions of dollars.

The banning of all European meat imports here would amount to a second--and far more serious--blow to the Europeans than the retaliatory action that the United States has already taken in response to the European ban on U.S. hormone-treated meat.

Counter-Sanctions Suggested

In that action, which took effect Jan. 1 at the same time as the European barriers, the United States imposed 100% retaliatory tariffs on a variety of European foods, from Danish cheese to Italian tomatoes. The tariffs affect about $100 million in European exports.

The Council of Permanent Representatives, a middle-level policy-making body of the European Community, has recommended that Europe counter-retaliate by imposing sanctions on $96 million worth of U.S. exports of walnuts and dried fruit.

European officials say the final decision rests with the higher-level Council of Foreign Ministers, which is scheduled to meet at EC headquarters in Brussels on Jan. 31. If that body decides to go ahead with the counter-sanctions, the trade skirmish could escalate.

Many officials and outside observers on both sides fear that the dispute could grow into a full-fledged trade war unless it is resolved soon. Washington is already embroiled in an argument with the European Community, also widely known as the Common Market, over its refusal to agree to phase out farm subsidies.

The Europeans contend that they are banning the use of hormones because consumers in the EC nations have complained that the hormones constitute a health hazard. The EC argues that Brussels has a right to set whatever health standards its policy-makers deem justified.

But U.S. officials insist that there is no scientific evidence to support the allegations that the hormones are harmful to health. They charge that the European ban is a thinly veiled effort to shut out American exports. Europe now has a glut of beef and pork.

Moreover, there is serious dispute over whether the beef that the United States sends to Europe even contains any residue of the hormones. Meat industry officials say the hormones are used only at the early stage of animal production and are entirely gone by the time the animals are slaughtered.

Reports of DES Traces

U.S. officials say the USDA letter questioning European meat-inspection practices stemmed from reports that European meat being sold to U.S. military commissaries in Europe had been found to have residue of the growth stimulant diethylstilbestrol, or DES, which both sides have banned as unsafe.

“There have been reports of two or three incidents of that,” one senior official said. The letter to the Europeans was sent by Lester M. Crawford, administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.