‘E.C. farmers use banned hormones’

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 8

‘E.C. farmers use banned hormones’

NZPA-AP Washington A United States senator says some European farmers still use growth hormones like those at the centre of a dispute which threatens to escalate into a full-blown American-European trade war. The E.C. has said it will impose a ban, effective from January 1, on United States meat from hormone-fed cattle, saying it constitutes a threat to consumers’ health.

“The fact is, however, that their own farmers, notwithstanding their objections to growth hormones, grow their meat with growth hormones,” Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said on the CBS television programme, “This Morning.” “They realise as we do that those hormones are out of the meat before they’re slaughtered, so that’s really not the issue,” said Mr Leahy, an opposition Democrat. The sides are locked in a dispute which threatens to spill over into other areas of trade between the United States and its European allies.

Two-way trade be-

tween the United States and the European Community totals SUSISO billion (5NZ237.71 billion) annually. On Tuesday, President Ronald Reagan’s Administration vowed to impose SUSIOO million ($NZ158.47 million) worth of trade sanctions against European food products, starting on January 1. The 100 per cent duties will effectively double the wholesale price at the United States border for such popular products as hams, canned Italian tomatoes, and imported wine coolers. The United States Trade Representative, Clayton Yeutter, said the stiff duties will go into effect unless the Europeans back down on their ban on imported meat products which contain growth hormones. The meat ban — which is to be applied to all European suppliers, not just the United States — is scheduled to take effect on January 1.

New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and Argentina already have agreed to ship only hor-mone-free beef to Europe.

Mr Yeutter, who is President-elect George Bush’s choice for agriculture secretary, said the European ban constituted an unfair trade practice because there was no scientific evidence that . the hormones, which are used to increase bulk, affect the health of humans. The Common Market countries contend that while the scientific evidence on meat hormones is not conclusive, they have the right to take precautionary action to protect health.

In a statement, the Reagan Administration said the United States Food and Drug Administration had determined that the daily production of hormones in humans, even in children, is far higher than the minuscule levels left in meat from treated animals. “We have tried repeatedly to bring this issue to a scientific dispute settlement panel (under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in order to have it resolved,” Mr Yeutter said in a statement.

“However, our European counterparts have blocked our efforts.”