International Trade Reporter | Volume 16 Number 33 | August 18, 1999
BRUSSELS - European Union plans to establish stricter standards for the ingredients of certain animal feeds in the wake of the food safety scare triggered by dioxin contamination in Belgium could cause a new, major trans-Atlantic trade dispute, the United States has warned.
In a biannual letter published Aug. 11, the new U.S. ambassador to the EU, Richard Morningstar, said an EU proposal postponed at the last minute in July by a Commission scientific committee "risks becoming another trade flash point."
In July, the Commission's Animal Feedstuffs Committee drew up a proposal calling for new limits that could potentially ban more than $1 billion in U.S. exports to the EU of processed vegetable oils and fish meal used, among other things, to manufacture animal feed as well as pet foods in the EU.
A vote on the new proposal at the end of July was delayed following intense lobbying by both the U.S. government and the London-based Grain and Food Trade Association. The vote on the proposal will take place in September, a Commission official said.
"These are new standards that member states have requested the Commission to consider in order to prevent the kind of crisis Belgium is going through now because of the presence of dioxin in animal feed," said Commission spokesman Thierry Daman.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture expert at the U.S. Embassy here told BNA that the animal feedstuff regulations were drafted by EU experts from the 15 member states without properly understanding the impact of the measures.
"It seems this a case similar to the Commission's proposal to ban specified risk material following the outbreak of Mad Cow disease," said the U.S. official. "The Commission and the EU member states were forced to back away from that proposal as they failed initially to recognize it offered few health benefits but had a huge, negative economic impact for both European and American companies."
GAFTA spokeswoman Sandra Black told BNA that the pending EU proposal on new animal feed ingredients "would have a huge impact on the trade industry in the EU ... far more than the Commission committee seems to have realized at first. We are certainly hoping the message has gotten through when it comes up for a vote again in September."
Antibiotics, GMOs
In the same "Letter from Brussels," which was Morningstar's first since he officially assumed his post in July, a number of other contentious EU-U.S. issues were mentioned, including the EU's ban on the use of antibiotics in animal feed as well as the de facto moratorium on genetically modified organisms.
Concerning GMOs, Morningstar accused the British media in particular of "scare stories and nightmare scenarios without a scientific basis."
"The failure to approve new varieties [of GMOs], despite their approval by the EU's own scientific committees will cost the U.S. more than $200 million in lost corn sales this year, but more importantly shows that politics and demagoguery have completely taken over the regulatory process," Morningstar added.
The U.S. ambassador noted that new products in the EU face a "de facto moratorium" on approvals, but legislation to clarify labeling rules was "postponed by a political decision until a new Commission is in place." The Commission is working on Novel Feeds legislation for livestock feed produced with biotechnology but nothing official has been released, he said.
Earlier this year the EU banned the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Currently the European Commission is considering a proposal on how to deal with exports that come from countries such as the U.S. that still allow antibiotics in feed.
"The U.S. is also reviewing the use of antibiotics in feed," Morningstar said. "Any U.S. action will be based on an assessment of the impact on public health of specific products and their uses, rather than categorically prohibiting certain practices."
A copy of Morningstar's letter can be found on http://www.useu.be.International Trade Reporter:
