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Ranchers.net

GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization will rule against the European Union next week in a dispute over beef treated with hormones, the Associated Press learned Friday, allowing the U.S. and Canada to keep in place millions of dollars in sanctions on European products.

The EU argues that the hormones pose a risk to human health. But Canada and the U.S. have successfully challenged the 27-nation bloc at the WTO, which ruled in 1998 that the ban was not based on solid scientific evidence.

A year later, the global commerce group authorized Washington and Ottawa to impose $125 million worth of retaliatory duties each year on European delicacies such as Roquefort cheese, truffles and Dijon mustard. The sanctions remain in force.

The WTO's latest panel decision, which will be made public on Monday, was released confidentially to the parties involved in December. It upholds that the EU failed to properly assess the risks before banning certain hormones in beef imports, according to an official summary obtained by the AP.

The EU brought the case back to the WTO in February 2005 after the U.S. and Canada refused to review their sanctions in light of new EU directives upholding the bans.
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