Why is the “beautiful beef” in America is a painful point of the Europe’s trade war

Hindrik Diendonck, a second -generation butcher that has become, as it describes it, “world -famous in Belgium” due to coordinated local beef, believes that Europe’s way of lifting livestock leads to various and delicious discounts of European consumer award.

“They want hormone -free, nourish the grass,” said Mr. Derinkic recently while cutting meat slices in a bloody cutting block in his restaurant, which Michelin succeeded, and who returns to the butcher that his father started in the seventies. “They want to know where it came from.”

The strict nutritional regulations of the European Union, including the ban on hormones, control the action of Mr. Derendock. These rules can turn into a point attached to the trade war. The Trump administration says that American meat, which has been produced without similar regulations, is better – and Europe wants to buy more of them, and other American agricultural products.

“They hate beef because our beef is beautiful,” said Howard Lootnick, the trading secretary in a televised interview. last month. “They are weak.”

The administration has the issues of beauty and strength, the administration is right in one thing: European policy makers are not keen to allow more American meat and burgers that have been raised in the European Union.

The opening of the European market for American farmers is just one request to the washing list of requests from the Trump team. American negotiators also want Europe to buy more US gas and trucks, change their consumption taxes and weaken its digital regulations.

Commercial officials within the European Union are ready to make many concessions to avoid a painful and long -term trade war and avoid the highest customs tariffs. They offered to drop the tariff of cars to scratch, buy more gas and increase military purchases. They have negotiators Even suggested They can buy more of some agricultural products, such as soybeans.

But the Europeans have their borders, and this taxi includes treated in America and the chest of acid wash.

“The European Union standards, especially with regard to food, health and safety, are the sacred – and this is not part of the negotiation, and it will never be,” Olov Jill, a spokesman for the European Commission, said the European Union’s administrative arm. “This is a red line.”

It is not clear how serious Americans about pressure on agricultural products such as beef and chicken meat. But the topic appeared frequently. When US officials revealed a trade deal with Britain on Thursday, for example, beef meat Be From the agreement.

But according to Britain, the deal will simply make it cheaper for Americans To export more Hormone -free beef for the country and will not weaken British health and safety rules, which are similar to those in the European Union

When it comes to the European Union, the United States It can actually export A large amount of hormone -free beef without facing definitions, so a rewarding deal will only do little to help American farmers.

But European diplomats and officials have repeatedly insisted that there is no space for maneuvering to reduce these health and safety standards. When it comes to meat -related commercial restrictions, there are only very little. Chicken, for example, faces a relatively high tariff, and there is a limited appetite to reduce these rates.

This is because Europe protects both its nutritional culture and farms.

Where America tends to have huge agricultural companies, the Europeans have maintained a more powerful network of smaller family operations. The 27 -countries mass has about Nine million Farms, compared to about Two million In the United States.

Commercial benefits and restrictions help maintain the agricultural system in Europe. The European Union devotes a large part of its budget to support farmers, a mixture of customs tariffs and shares that limit competition in sensitive areas. The European Union tariff for agricultural products is present 11 percent In general, based on the estimates of the World Trade Organization, although they differ greatly depending on the product.

You can put the block A higher tariff On agricultural goods in the United States if commercial negotiations pass. The list of products that may face revenge fees, published on Thursday, includes beef and pork, along with many soy and bourbon products.

But they are not only the definitions that limit European imports of American food. Strict health and safety standards also keep many foreign products off European grocery shelves.

Take cow meat. Mr. Derinkic and other European farmers are banned from the use of growth steroids, unlike the United States, where cattle is often raised on large feed with hormones. European safety officials concluded that they are I cannot exclude Human health risks of beef that have declined a hormone.

For Mr. Derdock, the rules also fit European preferences. Hormone deficiency leads to a less homogeneous product. “Every terroir has its taste,” explaining, describing the unique “mouth” of the Western red cow that raises it on his farm on the Belgian coast.

But agricultural beef without hormones is more expensive. American exporters must adhere to hormonal restrictions when they send meat, hamburgers or dairy products to the European Union countries, which European farmers argue only as fair. Otherwise, imported imports using cheaper methods can place European farmers from work.

“We cannot accept import products that do not meet our production standards,” said Dominic Chaldi, a cattle farmer from western France, who is also president of the La Coopération Association, a national union representing French agricultural cooperatives.

The result is that the United States does not sell much of cow meat to Europe. It is logical more economical for farmers to sell in markets that allow livestock that have retracted hormones.

One of the repeated American complaints is that European health standards revolve around preference more than actual health.

American scientists have described the risk of hormone use in cows minimum. Although European Union officials and consumers often make fun of America.Chicken“This cry of assembly is somewhat dated. American farmers have for years used vinegar -like acid, not chlorine, to rinse poultry and kill potential pathogens.

some Studies in Europe I suggested that such treatments are not an alternative to raising chicken in a way that makes them free of pathogens from the beginning. American scientists concluded that the rinsing are doing their work and that they are not harmful to humans.

“I don’t know that it is really a science,” said Diana Bourasa, a microbiologist who specializes in poultry at the University of Oborn. “In my opinion, the microbiology, there are no health effects.”

From the perspective of European farmers, although health risks are real besides the point. As long as European voters oppose chicken treated with chemicals and hormone treated beef, farmers in Europe cannot use these planting technologies.

“When you speak to our farms, it is related to fairness,” explained by Peter Fergire, a member of the Bulkin Farmers Union, Boerenbond. “The framework of the policy that we start is completely different, and these issues are mostly outside the hands of farmers.”

European consumers seem to support the rules of food and agriculture in the European Union.

Farmers’ protests last year aloud More imports of beef from South American countries were partially opposed by fears that cows were raised with the growth hormone. A commercial deal died in the era of Obama partially thanks to the popular anger on “chicken chlorine” (“(“Chlorine“To ridicule the Germans).

European Union audience Poll He suggested that policies that enhance agriculture and farmers are very popular. In the 2020 poll, they were personally briefed through the mass, approximately 90 percent of Europeans agreed to the idea that agricultural imports “should only enter the European Union if their production complied with the standards of environmental and animal well -being in the European Union.”

In Europe, including at the MR. Diendonck, there is a valuable value on the old way to do things, policymakers and farmers agreed. He said that Mr. Dyndonk buys some American beef for customers who are asking for it – it is easy to cook, as he said – but it is a small part of the work.

“I love American beef a lot, but I don’t like it a lot,” said Mr. Dierndic “For me, it comes to keeping traditions alive.”