EU/USA BSE "Drugs" Row Moves Towards Settlement

The first steps towards avoiding a trade war between the USA and theEuropean Union in the wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy scare have been made at the Transatlantic Business Dialogue meeting in Rome.

The USA had threatened to take action under the World Trade Organization against EU plans to ban imports of meat by-products such as tallow and gelatine from January, which the USA says would hit $4.5 billion worth of US exports of drugs containing such products. It is estimated that up to 85% of drugs produced in tablet form contain these products. The USA says it has no history of BSE, but the EU has claimed that the USA has had cases of the sheep disease scrapie, believed to be the originator of BSE.

However, at the meeting, US Under-Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said that the EU had persuaded him that it meant to settle the dispute, adding that the meeting had been "a catalyst for change."