Reuters | November 5, 1999
WASHINGTON - President Clinton Friday strongly defended the wholesomeness of U.S. grains and beef in the face of European Union concerns that the foods pose a threat to human health and the environment.
"I would never permit an American child to eat anything I thought was unsafe," Clinton said in a conference call with farm radio broadcasters from Hermitage, Arkansas, where he toured a tomato farm with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
With a new round of world farm trade negotiations set to begin in a less than a month, the United States faces a pair of nettlesome food disputes with the EU.
In both cases, EU officials are balking at opening their markets because of consumer safety concerns that fly in the face of the scientific opinion of U.S. regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration.
In the older of the two disputes, the EU has clung to a ten-year-old ban on beef from cattle raised with artificial growth hormones despite a series of World Trade Organization rulings against the restriction.
Artificial growth hormones have been used in U.S. and Canadian beef production for decades.
Clinton threatened to turn up the heat if the issue was not resolved soon. "I've already imposed some sanctions, and will impose more until we get satisfaction," Clinton said. "We won the beef case and we're entitled to the results of our victory."
In that fight, the WTO gave the United States permission this summer to impose retaliatory duties on $116.8 million worth of EU products. To keep up the pressure, the Senate passed legislation this week that would require Clinton to rotate the 100-percent duties to a new list of EU goods every six months until the issue is resolved.
The second trade battle involves new "genetically modified" crop varieties that account for about one-half of U.S. soybean output and a third of U.S. corn.
The varieties, which didn't exist just a few years ago, contain a gene borrowed from another organism to give the plant resistance to a certain herbicide or the ability to produce its own toxin to kill pests.
"We never want to sell anything to our people, much less anybody else, that isn't safe," Clinton said.
"We have confidence in the findings of our Food and Drug Administration that these foods are safe. And if we didn't believe that, we wouldn't be selling them and we certainly wouldn't be eating them," he said.
Unlike the beef dispute, the EU has approved some genetically modified soybean and corn varieties for importation. But those decisions were made before consumer fears effectively shut down the EU approval process.
In the past two years, U.S. corn farmers have lost some $200 million in sales to Europe because a handful of varieties approved here still haven't been approved in Europe.
U.S. soybean sales to Europe have also faltered as food manufacturers have begun insisting on traditional varieties in response to consumer demand.
In the beef dispute and a third trade row involving bananas, Clinton expressed hope the end may be in sight.
Last week, new European Commission President Romano Prodi promised the EU would make proposals on banana and beef before the 134-nation WTO meets in Seattle at the end of this month.
"We're in a real serious confrontation with the Europeans over the banana and beef issues," Clinton said. "And I think we will prevail and I think we will prevail in fairly short order."
