EU Agrees to Allow More Imports of US Beef, Trade Group Says

The European Union has reached an agreement in principle with the U.S. on importation of non-hormone-treated U.S. beef, according to an alert from the Cheese Importers Association of America. The U.S. beef industry had been pressuring for the re-imposition of retaliatory tariffs because the EU had purportedly not been adhering to an agreement to increase market access for U.S. beef by way of a tariff-rate quota for beef produced without growth-promoting hormones, the alert said. The deal would still need to be approved by EU member states and the U.S., and the EU must also reach agreements with Australia and Uruguay as the two biggest beneficiaries of the U.S. inability to fill the TRQs, the CIAA said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative "has not issued any formal statement regarding the EU-claimed agreement," the trade group said.