EU threatens WTO

Earlier Thursday, the United States announced changes to sanctions it applies to EU goods in retaliation for the bloc's ban on U.S. hormone-treated beef, escalating a longstanding trade dispute.
The decision updated the list of EU goods falling under punitive duties, deleting some and adding dozens of new products including oats, sausages and mineral water. It also allowed Washington to revise, every six months, the list of goods subject to sanction.
Outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab made it clear that the move was to pressure the EU to drop its ban on U.S. hormone-treated beef.
"For over a decade, we have been trying to resolve this dispute with the EU but our efforts have gone nowhere," Schwab said in a statement.
"In these circumstances, I have decided it is time to modify the duties to try to encourage a resolution of this longstanding dispute so as finally to provide a fair outcome to the U.S. beef industry, while addressing the economic impact of such long-standing duties on U.S. interests," she added.
The EU ban on hormone-treated beef, which has been in place since the early 1980s, was challenged by the United States and Canada at the WTO in 1996.