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The United States and
Canada contested the prohibition of the use of
hormones as growth promoters in food producing
animals, and in 1997 a panel of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) ruled that the EU measure
was not in line with the Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures (SPS).
The EU appealed
against this ruling and, in 1998, the WTO
Appellate Body reversed most of the findings of
the panel. The WTO Appellate Body only upheld
the finding that prohibition of imports of meat
from hormone-treated animals to the EU did not
comply with the requirement that such a measure
should be based on a relevant assessment of the
risks to human health.
In reaction to these
findings, the EU mandated a new assessment of
the risks to human health from hormone residues
in bovine meat and meat products treated with
six hormones used for growth promotion.
Subsequently the EU amended Directive 96/22/EC
by adoption of Directive 2003/74/EC and thus
implemented its international obligations in
the context of the World Trade
Organisation.
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