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Europeans May Reject Texas Beef Proposal

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From Reuters

Texas plan for exporting hormone-free beef to the European Community is acceptable to the Bush Administration but might be rejected by the Europeans, a senior Agriculture Department official said today.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said that U.S. negotiators had proposed a plan similar to one unveiled Tuesday by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower but that the community had dismissed it because it would not require testing for naturally occurring growth hormones.

Hightower’s plan was “among the options explored with the EC that they rejected,” the official said, adding that the community would retreat from its earlier negotiating position if it accepted Hightower’s proposal.

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U.S. officials said they did not know whether the community would accept the Hightower plan, aimed at breaking a trade deadlock.

“We don’t want to pour cold water on it,” the official said. “If he can figure out some partial solution, we will not pour cold water on it.”

Community agricultural counselor Derwent Renshaw disputed the American official’s claim that Washington had already put forward the same plan and that the community had rejected it. “I must say I don’t recall their making a proposal broadly along those lines,” he said, adding that the community has not yet decided whether the Texas plan complies with community rules.

The Europeans, responding to consumers’ concerns, banned on Jan. 1 imports of beef from cattle treated with hormones that promote growth. Washington, which maintains that the hormones pose no health risk if used correctly, retaliated by slapping 100% duties on $100 million worth of community imports.

4 Synthetic Hormones

Under the Texas proposal, which Hightower implied was acceptable to the Europeans, the U.S. Agriculture Department would have to conduct tests to identify the presence of four synthetic hormones. Agriculture Department inspectors already sample and test for the synthetic hormones at slaughterhouses, he said. Under the Texas plan, U.S. inspectors would have to start live-animal tests.

Significantly, no testing for such natural hormones as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, banned in the European Community but legal in the United States, would be required, Hightower said. Producers would simply have to pledge not to treat their livestock with growth hormones.

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