News and Analysis • Volume 11 • Number 6 • October 2007
Beef Hormones
A confidential interim report in the beef hormones dispute between the EU, the US and Canada has found that EU regulations on growth hormones in beef still do not comply with the requirements of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, sources familiar with the ruling say.
The report concerns a case brought by the EU against trade sanctions that the US and Canada continue to apply to European imports on the grounds that the EU has not complied with WTO rulings in the beef hormones dispute. The EU, however, notified to the Dispute Settlement Body on 14 October 2003 that it had fully complied with the rulings since the entry into force of a new regulation, based on further scientific risk assessments, on the use of hormones in animal husbandry (Bridges Year 7 No.7 page 13).
Although the US and Canada dismissed the EU’s claim that the new regulation had brought it in line with its WTO obligations, they refused to seek a compliance panel to adjudicate the matter. Instead, they continued to apply the sanctions, forcing the EU to initiate a new dispute in which it essentially had prove its own compliance. Ordinarily, it is up to the complainant in a dispute to show that the defendant has not complied. This shift in the burden of proof has systemic implications that go well beyond the rights and wrongs in the beef hormones case (Bridges Year No.9 page 11).
According to sources familiar with the report, the panel also faulted the US and Canada for maintaining the sanctions without a non-compliance finding from the WTO. This would result in the rather bizarre conclusion that while the EU has not complied with earlier rulings, the US and Canadian sanctions are illegal.
The interim report was handed to the parties in late July, more than two years after the panel started its deliberations. The final verdict is expected in the course of October. It is likely to be circulated to the public a month or two later.