Release No. 0023.96

                                           Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623

Statement 

                                  by 
                      Secretary Glickman on his 
              Conference Call with Commissioner Fischler
January 11, 1996


      "I spoke today by phone with EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler
on a number of agricultural trade issues.  This call was unfortunately
necessary because the bad weather prevented me from meeting with him in
Brussels yesterday.

      "We discussed a number of matters that we had on our agenda for the
Brussels meeting, but left a number of other issues for a future meeting,
which we agreed would be re-scheduled as soon as possible.  Among the items
covered this morning were the hormone issue, biotech issues, the status of the
farm bill, and the prospect for European enlargement into Eastern Europe.  We
also agreed that we had made progress in dealing with a number of key problems
in recent months and that efforts should be made to continue that process. 
Such issues included the corn gluten feed re-classification problem, the
agreements on Enlargement and margin of preference, as well as various
veterinary inspection problems.

      "On the hormone ban, Commissioner Fischler outlined the current status
of the problem in Europe and indicated that the report of scientific
conference held late last year was now completed.  However, he was not able to
indicate to us that steps would be taken to resolve the problem to our
satisfaction in the near term.  

      "On this issue, therefore, there continues to be a difference of
opinion.  The evidence is overwhelming that proper use of these hormones poses
no danger to human health, and the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement
ensures that the principles of sound science must prevail in matters such as
this.  Therefore, I will recommend, and I know Ambassador Kantor agrees, that
the United States initiate WTO dispute settlement proceedings against the EU
ban.  Nevertheless, we will continue to pursue our efforts with the EU to find
a bilateral solution."

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