The economic battle between US and EU agriculture is heating up as the two blocs halt imports of each others meat products. Europe bans American poultry, the US bans French meats. This is the current playing field for US/European hostility as the U.S. anti-dumping law was ruled to be illegal by the WTO roughly four years ago, which allowed the EU to move forward with trade sanctions against the US.
With disputes over steel tariffs and the weak dollar, there is growing animosity over trade. This builds on Sophia's earlier entry and could grow to a broarder view of trade relations.
BBC - US Stops imports of French meat
US stops import of French meats
The US has suspended imports of French meat products on safety grounds, it has been announced.
Items such as sausages, hams and foie gras are affected, France's Agriculture Ministry has reported.
The US has introduced the ban after a team of American farm officials visited the 11 French firms allowed to export such products to the States, it said.
The French ministry added that while the US noted "non-conformities" in its health safety system, it did not.
Below standards
"France agrees neither with the statements made by the US authorities, nor the conclusions they thought they needed to draw from them," it said.
However, it admitted that the French Farm Minister Herve Gaymard had taken a last-minute trip to Washington on Monday to present the steps taken by French firms to comply with specific US standards.
This however failed to prevent the ban.
The visit to France by the US Department of Agriculture team took place between 15 January and 5 February.
In addition to inspecting the 11 French firms licensed to import foie gras and other processed meat products to the US it toured the veterinary services that supervise the companies.
Other events
Mr Gaymond said he wanted to see the export of French meat products to the US restart "as soon as possible".
The US ban on French meats comes just hours after the European Union introduced a Europe-wide total ban on poultry and egg imports from the US after a bird flu outbreak in Texas.
It also comes on the same day that the World Trade Organisation gave the EU the go-ahead to introduce trade sanctions against America, because of the US's failure to repeal an historic anti-dumping law
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/3518983.stm
Published: 2004/02/24 21:47:11 GMT
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