Are the European Community measures concerning imported meat and meat products with hormones from the United States an example of trade protectionism or environmentalism

In 1994, the United States and the EU signed the various trade agreements negotiated during the Uruguay Round multilateral trade negotiations that created the World Trade Organization (WTO). One of those agreements was the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS). The SPS Agreement requires WTO members to base SPS measures on scientific risk assessments demonstrating that they do unnecessarily impede international trade. In 1996, the United States requested the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) to rule on whether the EC hormones ban was in violation of the SPS Agreement. In 1998, the WTO Appellate Body upheld a WTO Dispute Panel report that ruled the EC hormones ban violated Article 5.1 of the SPS Agreement. The Appellate Body gave the EU until May 1999 to lift the ban. However, as of the writing of this study the EU has refused to comply with the Appellate Body ruling.; This thesis attempts to answer whether the EC hormones ban is an example of trade protectionism or environmentalism. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...