Coalition Urges EU Trade Barrier Changes

March 7, 2001

With a key European trade official arriving in the United States this week for talks with Bush Administration trade officials, a broad coalition of American agricultural interests has called on the European Union (EU) to take a fresh approach to U.S.-EU trade relations by ending its protectionist policies regarding beef and banana imports and conforming those trade regimes to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Pascal Lamy, EU Trade Commissioner, arrives in the U.S. today to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and others in the administration.

The coalition said these talks will send an important signal about Europe's willingness to alter trade policies that have been declared illegal by multiple international trade panels and to work with the U.S. in building a global consensus in support of the launch of a new round of WTO trade talks later this year. The group, which includes the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and Chiquita Brands International, boasts the support of a broad array of agricultural interests.

"Every nation has domestic political interests to consider in matters of international trade. But the world's trade rules were designed to promote the important global interest of increasing fair trade. By failing to honor their obligations, the EU is undermining confidence in the multilateral trade system at the very time efforts are underway to launch new negotiations. Europeans are harming the cause of free and fair trade," the groups said in a statement.

To help ensure EU compliance, the coalition has called upon the Bush Administration to implement the "carousel" provisions of the Trade and Opportunity Act of 2000. That law requires that items on the retaliatory tariff list created by the U.S. be rotated in ways that maximize the likelihood of compliance with WTO trade rules. Although the law was enacted last May 18 and required such rotation by November, the Clinton Administration never put it into effect.

During the 2000 presidential election campaign and following the election, President Bush and his Administration spoke frequently about the need "to vigorously enforce existing trade laws." The EU's lack of compliance in the beef and bananas cases has led to increasing frustration in Congress and the business community over the EU's reluctance to abide by the laws of the world's multilateral trade system.