Mar 17, 1998

EC WILL UNDERTAKE NEW RISK ASSESSMENT ON HORMONE BEEF

Geneva, 14 Mar (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The European Communities reiterated Friday its "intention" to fulfil its WTO obligations in respect of the ruling on imports of beef raised with growth hormones, but beyond saying that it was initiating a process to examine the conditions for implementation within a reasonable period of time, the EC did not spell out how it would do it. 

The EC set out its position at the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), but a an EC press release in Brussels indicated that the EU would carry out what was described as a "complementary risk assessment.  

The Appellate body ruling was handed down on 16 January, and adopted by the DSB on 13 February. Under the DSU, the EC on the one side and US and Canada on the other have time till 30 March to agree on a period for implementation, and failing that this will go to arbitration - with a 90-day period from 13 February for the process to be completed. The DSU provides as a guideline for arbitrators a 15 month period as the time for implementation.

The EC did not spell out at the DSB what it would do and how it would implement the ruling on imports of beef and beef products from cattle raised on growth hormones -- and pointed out that the language it used about a 'reasonable period of time for implementation was no different from language used by the US in the gasoline dispute and Canada in the periodicals dispute.  

But a separate press release issued in Brussels said the EC would be carrying out a complementary "additional risk assessment" in the light of the ruling of the Appellate body of the WTO, and that in the meanwhile "taking into account its primary concern of health protection of consumers and safety of food, the EU will retain its prohibition of imports" of beef from cattle raised with bovine growth hormones. 

Both the US and Canada voiced their complaints and concerns over this at the DSB, and the US insisted that any EC actions short of withdrawal of the ban on hormone-treated beef and beef products would not be acceptable. Any EC actions seeking to avoid complying with the ruling would be an invitation to other WTO members to follow the EC example and this would be detrimental to the world trading system, the US envoy Rita Hauser told the DSB.  

The EC press release in Brussels said the complementary or additional risk assessment would focus on the potential health risks from hormone residues in meat and meat products, particularly the cancer risk to consumers arising from the presence in meat of hormone residues used for growth and particularly the risk arising from "not following good veterinary practive, abuse and difficulties of control and inspection."  

The new assessment, the EC press release said, will take account of the most recent scientific knowledge concerning hormones. Recent findings, it said, "indicated the need for re-evaluation of old assessments on the human health effects of hormones and hormone residues, on which current international standards (those of FAO's Codex Alimentarius Commission) are based."  

The complementary risk assessment, the press release said, will include the evaluation of existing data in the EC's possession, inputs from all other interested parties and the results of new studies which have to he conducted - and it will be achieved with the assistance of an independent body of scientists.  

The US and Canada wanted the EC to assure the WTO that when the results of the new assessment turn out to be the same as other scientific evidence showed, the EC would terminate the ban.  

The reasonable period of time envisaged in the Art 21.3 of the DSU was for implementation and not time for considering how to avoid complying with the ruling, the US said.  

The EC however would not go beyond its statement nor provide any details, but said it would negotiate with its trading partners on a 'reasonable period of time to implement'.