GLOBAL - The EU and US could be heading for another trade war, similar to the one it had over the use of growth hormones in beef cattle, writes Chris Harris.
This time the row that is brewing is over the use of ractopamine - a beta agonist - as a feed supplement, which is used for boosting growth and increasing leanness in pigs, cattle and turkeys.
The anger from the European Union at the Codex decision and the response by the council puts the EU on a collision course with countries such as the US and Canada, where the use of ractopamine is popular. Some estimates have the use in pig feed of between 60 and 80 per cent of the US herd.
The European Union has stuck to its policy of refusing access to meat from animals that have been treated with ractopamine and has called for assurances that any meat entering the EU from countries where its use is common has come from animals that are free from the drug.
While the EU still bans imports of meat from animals that have been reared using one of the six banned hormone growth promoters - estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, melengesterol acetate, trenbolone acetate, and zeranol - in March this year an agreement was reached to go a long way to settle the dispute
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