Introduction and Background:

Since the 1950s, the United States (U.S.) has been using growth hormones in beef production
because the hormones allow animals to grow larger, leaner and more quickly on less feed
(Hanrahan & Johnson, 2010), thus reducing production costs. The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have approved hormone-
injected beef and uphold their stand that eating hormone-fed beef has no adverse physiological
effect on humans. However, the European Union (EU) has a different opinion. The EU has been
banning the use hormones in their livestock since 1981. Since the early 1980s the U.S. and EU
has engaged in a long standing disagreement over the EUs decision to ban hormone treated beef.
The EU has specific concerns with the Genetically Modified Organisms that are being
introduced to foods that are processed and distributed to the public. University of Arkansas
explains that the EU is concerned over GMO's due to a new unknown biotechnology and the
variables that are associated with introducing the GMO's to human food. The WTO ruled in the
fall of 2006 that Europes genetically modified regulations contradict international trade rules.
The disputes over beef hormones and GMOs have affected many key stakeholders, both in the
US and in Europe. The major stakeholders that are involved are government agencies and
organizations such as the FDA, USDA, World Health Organization, EU, Joint Expert Committee
on Food Additives (JECFA), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, and the
Codex Committee which plays a significant role in determining the standards and safety of the
food for consumption.
Issue The EUs Ban on Hormones
In a report released in April 1999 by the Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating
to Public Health, and titled Assessments of Potential Risks to Human Health from Hormone
Residues in Bovine Meat and Meat Products, the use of six natural and artificial growth
hormones in beef production poses a potential risk to human health. The report directly
questioned the beliefs that residues in meat could really disrupt human hormone balance.
With the ban of hormone treated beef into the EU, the U.S. immediately looked into retaliatory
counter measures and imposed tariffs (Hanrahan & Johnson, 2010). Over the last few decades,
the EU and U.S. have made several rounds of concessions and amendments to their trade
policies, such as the EU raising the US Beef Quota, and the U.S. reducing some of the penalizing
tariffs. And as an update to this issue, on March 14, 2012 the EU and U.S. finally came to an
agreement on hormone treated beef