EU beef ban delayed, allowing further talks

and GORDON CRAMB

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union on Monday lifted its threat to ban all U.S. beef imports after accepting assurances from Washington of increased controls to ensure the meat is hormone-free.

The decision will ease friction between the two trading blocs, although a wider dispute about whether the EU may ban hormone- treated beef still has to be resolved. The hormone ban, challenged at the World Trade Organization by the United States, has been in place since 1988, but in recent years the EU has been importing about $20 million a year of supposedly hormone- free beef. In April it announced plans to ban these imports beginning today after EU veterinary experts found hormone residues in meat samples. The European Commission, the EU's executive panel, said Monday member states had agreed to postpone until Dec. 15 a possible ban to allow further progress in talks. It said the United States had agreed to check all beef exported to the EU for hormones. The EU plans to send two inspection teams to the United States to examine checking procedures and, if the first, preliminary visit shows no problems, the EU would relax a requirement that all imports of beef be checked by member states. U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley on Monday indicated an acceptable form of labeling for hormone-treated U.S. beef sold in the EU could resolve the dispute.

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