NCBA APPLAUDS SENATE PASSAGE OF CAROUSEL RETALIATION

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 5 1999) -- The Senate approved legislation on Nov. 3 that would encourage the European Union (EU)to drop its ban on U.S. beef, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) said. The legislation would work to bring the EU into compliance with international trade law.

NCBA, along with other members of an agricultural coalition, applauded the legislation, which the Senate approved as part of a larger trade bill. NCBA is also working with House agricultural leadership to secure consideration in the House.

"EU officials' continued disregard of WTO rulings in the beef and banana cases has proven that static retaliation is not working as well as we had hoped," said Dana Hauck, a cattle producer from Delphos, Kan., and NCBA International Markets Committee chair. "Mandatory carousel retaliation will help U.S. trade officials to resolve these disputes, by increasing the pressure on the EU."

The World Trade Organization has ruled that the EU ban on U.S. beef and import policies on bananas are illegal. These EU trade barriers are causing cattle producers and other agriculture industries more than $25 million every month in lost business. Despite WTO-sanctioned tariffs imposed by the United States earlier this year, the EU has refused to bring its trade policies into compliance with international law.

"Under the current system, injured parties can litigate for years, win their cases and still suffer when officials in the violating country refuse to comply," Hauck said. "Passage of this legislation will give the United States another tool in the fight for fair trade and help ensure that the world trading system works the way it was intended."

Carousel Retaliation is intended to increase pressure on the offending countries to comply with WTO rules by requiring periodic rotation of products targeted for retaliation. While not changing the amount of retaliation being imposed, the carousel approach is meant to increase the number of foreign businesses and industries that are penalized for unfair trade practices.

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Initiated in 1898, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry. NCBA is producer-directed but consumer-focused, with offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington D.C.