EU offers to double US beef imports as gesture

THE EU is offering to double a preferential quota for beef imports from the US, in an effort to end their long-running, hormone-related dispute over beef trade.

In negotiations, a doubling of the 11,500 tonnes import quota, which the US shares with Canada, is offered in exchange for elimination of $116m worth of US sanctions against EU products.

The EU’s ban on beef treated with hormones would stay in place.