for Daisy Arabella

March 31, 2018

Week 3 Case Study

The beginning of the Dispute between the EU and the U.S. started back in the 1950’s when growth hormones where regularly used in the production of beef. However, in the 1970’s a big uproar in the EU against these growth hormones began in particular against a hormone called diethylstilbestrol. They had claimed that boys in Italy were experiencing early on-set puberty and other health related problems due to the growth hormones in beef imported from the U.S. due to this out cry both the EU and the U.S. took out the hormone in beef production. In the 1980s though the European Council they decided to ban almost 6 different hormones that were all used by major meat producing companies in the U.S. So, when the EC decided to impose the ban on hormone-treated beef this caused the U.S. to retaliate by imposing tariffs of more than 93 million dollars per year.

When the WTO looked at the case the SPS agreement of 1996 very much so helped the U.S. the U.S. claimed the EU had not provided sufficient evidence to put a ban on hormone-treated beef. However, the EU argued that it would “rather be safe than sorry”. This did not help the EU however, because the WTO ruled in favor of the U.S. saying that they did not produce clear enough evidence to conclude that hormone-treated beef was unhealthy. The WTO after not receiving new evidence from the EU after an appeal, had the U.S. impose 116.8 million dollars of increased tariffs on the EU.