As U.S. officials prepare a list of sanctions against the European Union for its continued ban of hormone-treated imported meat, several major U.S. agricultural organizations have called for "broad-based" retaliatory measures.

In letters of U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshevsky and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, the groups expressed anger at the EU's failure to comply with a World Trade Organization panel ruling that the EU must end the import ban.  The American Meat Institute, one of the groups signing the letter, says U.S. officials have hinted that the sanctions might be limited to EU agricultural products.

May 13, 1999, is the deadline for ending the ban.

Signing the letter, in addition to AMI, were the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

The groups said all EU nations must feel the impact of the sanctions.  They recommended revising the list of products that would be targeted every six months.

A 1989 retaliation effort affected only one EU nation and failed to create broad pressure to change the policy, AMI says.

"The unwavering goal of the U.S. beef industry is, and has consistently been, to regain access to the EU market.  U.S. beef products, considered a staple by over 270 million American consumers and highly coveted by a growing number of worldwide consumers, have not been banned from the European market for more than a decade," the groups said.