World Notes EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

What's a little artificial fattening between friends? When the twelve-nation European Community banned the import of hormone-treated beef last January, claiming possible health hazards, American cattle ranchers were furious. They saw it as merely a protectionist maneuver to keep nearly $100 million in U.S. beef each year out of European shops. The U.S. Government retaliated by slapping 100% tariffs on a variety of E.C. exports worth roughly $100 million a year.

| Some feared that the battle could escalate into a full-blown trade war. But tempers cooled last week when the two sides reached an interim agreement. The U.S. is resuming shipments of untreated beef, totaling $15 million annually, which the E.C. had included in the ban because U.S. inspectors refused to certify that it was in fact untreated. In turn, the U.S. tariffs on E.C. goods will be scaled back. Trade Representative Carla Hills said that while the interim agreement was a positive step, the U.S. still feels that the E.C.'s import ban is "an unjustifiable restriction on trade."