The European Union’s eight-year-old ban on Canadian beef imports because many Canadian cattle producers use growth hormones is a violation of international trade law, the World Trade Organization ruled last week.
A similar judgment from a WTO trade panel supported American complaints about their exclusion from EU markets.
Canadian trade and cattle industry representatives last week cheered the panel ruling as a victory for the rule of trade law.
But there were no predictions that Europe will quickly open to become a major market for North American beef.
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“I see this ruling as a good first step,” Dennis Laycraft, of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said in an interview from Calgary. “This ruling is a good precedent for making sure that non-tariff barriers on sanitary and phyto-sanitary grounds are science-based. But there will be other barriers before we are into that market again.”
Agriculture Canada beef trade specialist Ian Thomson agreed.
“It’s a strong result on the trade rules side but not an immediate opening of the market,” he said. “But of course, hopefully there will be more product sold at the end of this as well.”
First, though, the Europeans are expected to fight back.
The EU has signalled it intends to appeal.
And even if Canada wins the appeal, the Europeans could refuse to accept the ruling. That would give Canada the right to seek compensation, likely in the form of taking back access or trade concessions granted to the EU in earlier negotiations.
Trade minister Sergio Marchi last week said he hopes the EU will accept the judgment and end the fight.
“I hope they don’t (appeal) and agree to respect the process but that obviously is a judgment for them to make,” he said.
In 1989, the EU announced it would no longer allow imports of beef produced using growth hormones, which are not legal in European herds.
It said the action was taken for protection of consumer health.
What had been a market for more than 13,000 tonnes of Canadian beef in 1986 dwindled to just over 1,000 tonnes in 1989 and 560 tonnes of meat in 1996 – mainly bison and cow offal.
Meat-exporting countries spent years trying to negotiate market access but failed.
In the meantime, the European Union signed the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1994 which strengthens the ability of traders to challenge health-based trade barriers that are built on questionable scientific claims.
In 1996, Canada asked for a WTO trade panel to resolve the case. It argued there is no scientific evidence beef produced using growth hormones pose a health concern.
In an Aug. 25 ruling, the WTO panel agreed.
