I know I'm getting a bit long in the tooth when the issue of beef hormones and the long-running trade battle between the USA and the EU raises its head.
The issue kicked off in the early 1980s, at about the same time as I was studying agricultural economics at Reading University. In response to concerns about Italian men growing breasts from eating meat, Brussels banned a total of six hormones that at that time were being used in EU beef production.
By the time I started out in agricultural journalism a few years later, a ban had also been imposed on imports of hormone-treated beef, triggering a whole series of retaliatory measures by the USA and Canada.
This culminated in a lengthy legal challenge, with the WTO eventually ruling in 1998 that the EU was in the wrong since it had not carried out a proper scientific assessment.
But, instead of lifting its ban, the EU then set out to find the right science to back its claim. This prompted the USA and Canada to impose a new range of tariffs, targeting French cheeses and Italian hams in particular.
Further legal action ensued as the EU challenged the sanctions, though this process ground to a halt last November, when the WTO said it was unable to complete the investigation...
That's just a tiny snapshot of what is an incredibly convoluted issue. Indeed, whole theses have been written about the subject in universities on both sides of the Atlantic.
But now it seems that a final, final solution could be in sight. News out this week has confirmed that EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton and US trade representative Ron Kirk have agreed in principle to a settlement.
Apparently the USA has agreed not to increase its level of tariffs as it had been threatening to do, but instead will phase them out over the next four years.
At the same time, the EU will increase the volume of hormone-free beef it accepts duty free from the USA each year by 20,000t a year for the next three years, and another 40,000t in the fourth year.
Predictably enough, farming organisations on both sides of the Atlantic have expressed disappointment.
The American Farm Bureau Federation says the EU should open its borders fully and accept "science-based decision making and world trade rules". EU farm body COPA on the other hand, complains that it is "another blow for EU farmers who are already struggling to survive in a market hit by the economic crisis".
But to me it does seem like a fairly sensible compromise - especially if, after over 20 years, I never have to write about the flaming beef hormone dispute again.
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