Vol. 503 No. 7
68 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the action, if any, being taken by the Government to resist the importation of US hormone treated beef on to the EU market in view of the fact that the deadline for the importation of this beef as set out by the World Trade Organisation decree is 13 May 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11031/99]
The deadline of 13 May 1999 refers to the date set by an arbitrator by which the EU is to bring the hormone ban fully into conformity with the findings of a WTO panel, as amended by the WTO appellate body. The EU has been endeavouring to comply with the WTO findings and in this regard has commissioned 17 scientific studies in relation to the hormones in question. The difficulty is, however, that the full results of all the studies will not be available by the deadline already referred to.
In these circumstances, the European Commission has been engaged in discussions with the US authorities with a view to averting the imposition by the US of threatened retaliatory measures against EU exports to that country. These discussions centre around compensation for the US and/or allowing access to the EU market of US hormone treated beef labelled as such, pending the availability of the full scientific evidence from the studies referred to above.
I can support a solution to this issue which avoids a damaging trade war with the US, while at the same time continuing to provide protection to consumers in the European Union who do not wish to consume hormone treated beef.
