. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/DS26/17/Add.2
WT/DS48/15/Add.2
9 March 1999
(99-0967)
Original:  English
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – MEASURES CONCERNING
MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS (HORMONES)
Status Report by the European Communities
Addendum
The following communication, dated 8 March 1999, from the Permanent Delegation of the
European Commission to the Chairman of the Disput e Settlement Body, is circulated in accordance
with Article 21.6 of the DSU.
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Status Report on the Implementation of the Recommendations and Rulings
in the dispute regarding
European Communities – Measures Concerning Meat and Meat Products (Hormones)
Pursuant to Article 21.6 of the DSU, the European Community wishes to make the third status
report to the DSB on the progress made towards implementing its rulings and recommendations
concerning the Community's prohibition on imports of  bovine meat and meat products of animals
treated with six growth hormones.
As we informed this Body in January, in light of the ruling of the Appellate Body, the
Community initiated its reflections on how to im plement the DSU rulings and recommendations.  As
a first step, the Commission decided to launch without  delay a complementary risk assessment, with a
view to assessing the implications thereof for the Community's import prohibition.
Further details on the risk assessment exercise underway are, as we said in our first statement,
on public record.  As already explained, in the meantime, the inter-institutional consultations
continue.
However, as I indicated at the February meeting of this Body, the complementary risk
assessment may not be completed by 13 May, the deadline fixed by the Arbitrator for the Community
to implement the DSB rulings and recommendations.
In order to prepare for the situation which may therefore arise at that time, the Commission
has prepared a report for the Council and European Parliament, setting out the options to beconsidered.  For this purpose a number of scientific studies are now underway, some of which were
launched as early as February 1998.
The Commission has asked the Council and Parliament to urgently consider these options.
Meanwhile, the Commission has initiated preliminar y discussions with the complaining parties, inWT/DS26/17/Add.2
WT/DS48/15/Add.2
Page 2
order to further evaluate the merits of the different options, and in particular is exploring the
feasibility of compensation as a temporary solution.
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