Friday, December 23rd 2016
Courtsey of Brownfield Ag News
The Obama Administration is taking the first steps in addressing the European Union’s unfair trading practices that discriminate against US beef imports. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has determined that the EU’s ban on beef imports is not science based and violates its international trade obligations, so now the US Trade Representative’s office has started the process of retaliation. Kent Bacus, director of international trade and marketing with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the request goes back to an original ruling against the EU in 1999 when the WTO authorized the US to impose tariffs on EU products and 2009 when the US and the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding. “In exchange for temporarily rescinding some retaliatory tariffs that we’re entitled to from that decision, we would gain access to 45,000 metric tons and it would be duty free access,” he says. “It was designed primarily for the United States, but unfortunately over the last few years the EU has been granting access to other countries that have been able to undercut us.” By continuing to violate the 2009 agreement and filling the metric ton quota from other countries, Bacus says the EU left the US no choice but to reinstate retaliatory tariffs. “We were hopeful that the T-TIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) negotiations would be a path towards a long-term solution that would be science based,” he says. “But unfortunately those talks have been put on hold.” The USTR has scheduled a public hearing and is seeking comment on the ban and how reinstating tariffs on a list of EU products imported into the US could impact US consumers and small businesses.