EU, Canada, Settle 21 Year Beef Fight

Canada and the European Union have settled a 21-year dispute of hormone-treated meat, according to Reuters. In a filing with the World Trade Organization this week, Canada and the EU announced the settlement on the dispute that began in 1996. Under the terms of the settlement, Canada gives up any right to retaliate over the decades-old complaint, which alleged the EU was breaking WTO rules by banning hormone-treated beef.

The use of hormones in Canada had blocked Canadian beef exports to the EU. Through negotiations on CETA, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the EU and Canada reached an agreement on a limit of hormone-treated beef for export to the EU. The eventual deal allowed Canada to raise its exports to the EU in stages to 50,000 metric tons of duty-free beef, as well as 80,000 metric tons of pork and 100,000 of wheat.

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