A World Trade Organization panel has found the European Union’s ban on Canadian and U.S. beef to be inconsistent with the bloc’s WTO obligations, but doesn’t let Canada off the hook for its retaliation.
The EU since 1989 has banned Canadian and U.S. beef from hormone-treated cattle, while the two exporters claim the Europeans have “not been able to prove there are scientific reasons for a ban,” the federal government said in a release Wednesday.
With the WTO panel’s view in hand, Canadian trade officials “hope that the EU will lift its ban,” International Trade Minister David Emerson said.
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However, the panel also focused on retaliatory trade measures that Canada took starting in 1999, following rulings by a WTO dispute settlement body, as well as an appellant body, that the EU ban is out of line.
Canada said it put up $11.3 million worth of retaliatory trade measures that year against European products such as pork, gherkins and cucumbers. Those measures had been authorized by the WTO when the EU had not lifted its ban by the trade body’s deadline.
But the EU, claiming it had met its obligations, reissued its ban in 2003. Canada and the U.S., in retaliation, continued their trade measures against EU goods. By 2005, as a result, the EU was back before a WTO dispute settlement body.
The Europeans claimed Canada and the U.S. had acted unilaterally against the new ban because they hadn’t gone through another WTO panel for approval before they announced an extension of their duties against the EU goods in question.
The latest WTO panel recommends to the WTO dispute settlement body that it ask Canada to “bring its (trade measures) into conformity with its obligations” under the Dispute Settlement Understanding agreed to by WTO members.
Nevertheless, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in Ottawa’s release Monday that “this ruling once again shows that Canada is playing by the rules and delivering safe, healthy food to markets around the world.”
The WTO panel report must be adopted by the WTO dispute settlement body within 60 days from the date of circulation, unless either Canada or the EU appeals the report, the government said.
U.S. measures against the EU over the same beef ban were similarly criticized in a separate WTO report.
