USTR to Hold Hearing on EU Hormone-Treated Beef Ban

A public hearing on imposing potential 100% import tariffs on some 90 European products -- particularly targeting agricultural products from France, Germany and Italy -- will be held Feb. 15 in Washington, DC, by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).USTR published the list of potential products to be targeted in a Dec. 28, 2016, Federal Register notice which also announced the Feb. 15 hearing. While most of the 90-odd products targeted by the U.S. retaliatory list are meats, it also includes goods such as for motorbikes, chocolate, mustard, paprika and chestnuts.The tariff proposal stems from a dispute that has been simmering for nearly 30 years over the European Union’s (EU) refusal to accept imports of U.S. beef treated with hormones. US livestock producer interests are pushing the Trump administration to hit the EU hard. The bloc has a 136 billion euro ($144.6 billion) surplus with the US, making it particularly vulnerable to trade sanctions.The European Commission (EC) said it was closely following “the US review process to reinstate trade sanctions.” USTR has not commented on the issue, in part because Trump’s nominee for USTR, Robert Lighthizer, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.The beef dispute dates back to the 1980s and in 1996, the U.S. filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the EU ban on imports of hormone-treated beef. After the EU continued to enforce its ban, the WTO allowed the U.S. to impose punitive tariffs equal to the damage suffered because of the hormone ban.The retaliatory tariffs had a significant impact, causing the value of EU imports affected by the duties to drop from $130 million in 1997-98 to less than $15 million in 2008, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. In 2009, under President Barack Obama, both sides reached an agreement for ending the trade sanctions in return for allowing the U.S. to export up to 50,000 tons of hormone-free beef per year to Europe."That was at a moment when the Americans were truly open to negotiate at eye level," said Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl from the European People’s Party, who was the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the deal. In 2012, the agreement passed the Parliament, just a year before the EU and US started talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) pact. Negotiations on TTIP are ongoing, but there is uncertainty about their future given the stance President Donald Trump has taken on trade issues.The dispute over beef reignited in part because U.S. farmers argue that the 2009 deal was not fair to them. They say countries such as Australia and Uruguay, which can produce hormone-free beef more cheaply, have moved in to fill the 50,000-metric ton quota originally intended for the U.S.