Canada, EU settle beef dispute thanks to CETA deal

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – Canada and the European Union agreed Tuesday to settle a nearly 30-year-old dispute on hormone-treated beef imports following their recent signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

In a statement on the World Trade Organization’s website, they said CETA was “conducive for finding a mutually agreed solution and settling the dispute”.

Under the terms, Canada can export 50,000 tons of hormone beef duty-free to EU countries. The EU had banned hormone-treated beef from both Canada and the U.S. in 1989, Canadian media reported.

Canada in turn dropped its demand, filed with the WTO, for the EU to allow enough imports of beef to make a hormone-free herd economically feasible. Hormone-free beef costs more to raise.

The U.S., which also filed a challenge to the hormone beef decision with the WTO, did not join CETA, and its hormone beef is still banned.