The United States and the European Union (EU) have engaged in a long-standing and acrimonious trade dispute over the EU's decision to ban hormone-treated meat, dating back to the early 1980s. Despite an ongoing series of dispute settlement proceedings and decisions by the World Trade Organization (WTO), there is continued disagreement between the United States and the EU on a range of legal and procedural issues, as well as the scientific evidence and consensus concerning the safety of hormone-treated beef. Many in the United States perceive the EU's ban as an example of how sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and non-tariff barriers are used as disguised protectionism, primarily intended to restrict imports from other countries. In January 2009, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for the outgoing Bush Administration announced changes to the list of EU products subject to increased tariffs under the dispute. These changes were scheduled to go into effect on March 23, 2009. The EU claimed this action constituted an "escalation" of the dispute and was "more punitive" than current trade sanctions. The EU decided to hold off further action until the Obama Administration reviewed the decision. The Administration delayed implementing the changes, pending further negotiations with the EU. In May 2009, following a series of negotiations, the United States and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which phased in certain changes over the next several years. As part of this MOU, the EU granted market access to U.S. exports of beef raised without the use of growth promotants, and the United States suspended its retaliatory tariffs for imported EU products under the dispute. However, in December 2016, USTR took steps to reinstate retaliatory tariffs on the list of EU products under the dispute given continued concerns about U.S. beef access to the EU market. Specifically, under the MOU, the EU agreed to create a 45,000 metric ton duty-free quota for imports of non-hormone-fed beef that, according to the U.S. beef industry, has been filled by countries other than the United States, including Australia, Uruguay and Argentina. A public hearing is scheduled for 2017. This issue has also been raised in ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and the EU to establish a free trade area as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). Some Members of Congress continue to push for the EU's hormone ban to be lifted and expect the T-TIP negotiations to resolve long-standing trade disputes regarding SPS rules between the two trading blocs and enhance disciplines to address SPS issues and other non-tariff barriers. The provisional agreement allows the EU to maintain its restrictions on U.S. beef imports in a manner that many U.S. farm organizations believe to be inconsistent with WTO rules, not to mention a scientific consensus supporting the safety to consumers of eating hormone-treated meat. To date, the EU continues to ban imports of hormone-treated meat and restricts most meat exports to the EU to a limited quantity of beef imports that are certified as produced without the use of hormones, beta agonists, and other growth promotants. Growth-promoting hormones are used widely in beef production in the United States and in other meat-exporting countries. In the United States, hormones have been approved for use since the 1950s and are now believed to be used on approximately two-thirds of all cattle and about 90% of the cattle on feedlots. In large U.S. commercial feedlots, their use approaches 100%. Cattle producers use hormones because they allow animals to grow larger and more quickly on less feed and fewer other inputs, thus reducing production costs, but also because they produce a leaner carcass more in line with consumer preferences for diets with reduced fat and cholesterol. Growth-promoting hormones include compounds that either naturally occur in an animal's body or mimic naturally occurring compounds. Estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone (three natural hormones), and zeranol and trenbolone acetate (two synthetic hormones), may be used as an implant on the animal's ear. Melengestrol acetate, which can be used to improve weight gain and feed efficiency, is approved for use as a feed additive. Not all combinations of hormones are approved for use in all classes of cattle. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cooperate in regulating growth promotants for livestock. Both of these agencies maintain that hormones in beef from an implanted animal have no physiological significance for humans. All animal drug products are approved for safety and effectiveness under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.). About 30 animal growth-promoting products are marketed in the United States. In addition to the United States, other countries that have approved the use of growth-promoting hormones in beef production are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, and Japan, among other countries. The use of hormones in beef production, however, is not allowed in the European Union, or in other European countries that assume many of the rights and obligations of the EU single market. To date, the EU continues to ban imports of hormone-treated meat and restricts most meat exports to the European Union to a limited quantity of beef imports that are certified as produced without the use of hormones. The European Commission (EC) enacted its ban on both the production and importation of meat derived from animals treated with growth-promoting hormones in the early 1980s. This ban restricts the use of natural hormones to therapeutic purposes, bans the use of synthetic hormones, and prohibits imports of animals and meat from animals that have been administered the hormones. The ban, however, did not go into effect until January 1, 1989. Initially the ban covered meat and meat products from animals treated with six growth promotants that are approved for use and administered in the United States, including estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate. In 2003, the commission amended its policy to permanently ban one hormone—estradiol-17β—while provisionally banning the use of the five other hormones, as it continued to seek more complete scientific information. The ban reflects the EU's approach to food safety policy, known as the precautionary principle, which supports taking protective action before there is complete scientific proof of a risk. The ban also effectively restricts trade of meat and meat products from countries that regularly treat farm animals with these growth promotants. The commission has justified its ban as necessary to protect consumer health and safety. This position initially evolved, in part, as a reaction to reports in the 1970s over the illegal use of dethylstilboestrol (DES) in veal production in France, and consumer concerns that this was linked to reports of hormonal irregularities in Italian adolescents. This created concerns over the possible negative health effects of using hormones in livestock production, and contributed to a general climate in Europe that was suspicious of the use of hormones in livestock production and the potentially harmful health effects to consumers. During the 1990s, EU consumer meat demand was again adversely affected by outbreaks in British cattle herds of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a fatal brain disease, commonly known as "mad cow disease." Scientifically established links between BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human variant of BSE, added to consumer distrust about the safety of the meat supply. Continued discovery of BSE-infected cattle in some European countries contributed further to an unfavorable political, economic, and social environment for resolving the meat hormone dispute. Although BSE has nothing to do with hormones, many EU beef producers are fearful of doing anything, like using hormones, that might give consumers another disincentive to buy meat. Many of these same types of concerns have surfaced in consumer reactions to the introduction of transgenic plants and other forms of biotechnology into the food chain. Political and economic considerations also have likely contributed to the commission's decision to continue its policy to ban hormone-treated beef. Opposition to hormone-treated meat continues unabated, and both producer and consumer interest groups in the EU continue to exert pressure on EU trade policy officials to hold to their position banning hormone-treated beef. The EU's beef sector benefits from both domestic producer support and trade policies under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is reported to have resulted in the accumulation of large, costly-to-store beef surpluses. Many European cattle producers support the EU's import ban in part because they are concerned about competition from possibly cheaper imported beef from the United States and other beef exporting countries. Along with responding to consumer concerns, EU agricultural policymakers have been resistant to policies that might accelerate the contraction of the agricultural sector and contribute to increased unemployment. The United States has continued to challenge the EU's beef hormone ban in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to question whether the ban is consistent with the EU's WTO obligations under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement (see box). After a series of WTO consultations, panel decisions, and appeals in the case, both the United States and the European Union claim these formal proceedings have vindicated their respective positions in the dispute. This case has proven so intractable in part because it involves internal national regulation and domestic policy issues, and rules for dispute settlement and the use of SPS measures to restrict trade, rather than routine commercial disputes over trade or customs regulations. Although the WTO has issued decisions that have questioned the validity of the ban, the EU has repeatedly voted to maintain it, citing consumer worries, questions of animal welfare, meat quality, and effects of hormones on the EU's beef and milk sectors.