EU still in limbo over hormone-treated beef

摘要

According to the final report from the World Trade Organisation, which is scheduled to be published soon, the European Union has won the procedural battle in its difference of opinion with the USA on growth hormones, but it lost on a key point: according to the WTO panel, the new EU legislation, which dates back to 2003, justifies the new American sanctions.rnConfronted with the final report from the WTO on growth hormones which has handed to them in late 2007, the USA and Canada should maintain the sanc-rntions that they have applied against the EU since 1999 - €79 million per year, and €8 million, respectively. The 2003 directive, which takes account of new scientific studies on the subject and affirms that it has demonstrated that at least one of the banned hormones, estradiol, is carcinogenic, is not in compliance with international trading rules, the document concludes. However, the Americans and Canadians should have begun a new procedure because it is appropriate to re-examine the legitimacy of the retaliation measure.