The second public panel hearing in the longstanding WTO dispute on beef hormones among the EU, the US, and Canada took place on 2-3 October. As for the first panel hearing in September 2005, the proceedings were broadcast through closed-circuit television to an audience at WTO headquarters in Geneva. They remain the only WTO dispute proceedings ever to be opened to the public.

The panels are evaluating the EU's parallel challenges against continued retaliatory sanctions on its exports imposed by the US and Canada. The original hormones case dates back to the late 1990s, when the US and Canada successfully challenged the EU's import ban on hormone-treated beef on the basis that it was not based on a proper scientific risk assessment. Following appeals, they received the authority to impose trade sanctions against the EU in 1999. In 2005, after presenting new scientific evidence in an attempt to convince the US and Canada to end their retaliatory tariffs, the EU requested the establishment of a panel to rule on the matter. All three countries asked for the proceedings to be opened to the public (see BRIDGES Weekly, 7 September 2005).

Also open to the public was a 26-27 September meeting of scientific experts appointed by the panel, which both the parties and the panel members used to clarify technical details about the case -- notably about risk assessment.

During the hearing, the parties opened with prepared statements, and proceeded to question each other. As before, the US and Canada questioned the compliance of the EU's risk assessment procedure with the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures. The panel also posed questions to the parties, in particular about the effects of hormone-treated beef on sensitive groups such as prepubescent children.

As in 2005, few attended the hearing, primarily delegates, in spite of the oft-voiced need for greater transparency in WTO dispute settlement.

ICTSD reporting.