US imposes 300% cheese import tax

AMERICA has put up the import duty on Roquefort cheese from 100% to 300% of the price.

The move is in retaliation to the EU for continuing sanctions on the import of American beef, produced using an array of hormones to speed up growth and maturity.

The famous smelly cheese was the only product to see its tax triple in a raft of increases which have been pushed through just before United States trade Representative Susan Schwab leaves office with the rest of the Bush administration.

The president of a Roquefort producers’ union said this was the end of the line for the export trade to America, which normally takes 2% of production, while farmer-activist José Bové denounced the move as “scandalous.”

America has said it considered the increase conforms to an appeal judgment by the World Trade Organisation last year, when it ruled, concerning the ongoing row over American beef, that previous US sanctions against Europe had been legal. “The WTO said the EU’s ban on our beef was not founded on science,” they said. “For more than a decade we have been trying to resolve this disagreement with the EU, but have not succeeded.”

However the EU said the WTO had not examined its latest regulations on hormones – dating from 2003 – and was considering a complaint to them over the latest increases.

The list of products that have had import duties increased also included many other European products that are now at 100% tax, including meats, fruits and vegetables, cereals and even chocolate.

According to Le Monde Britain is the only country spared increases “because they have always been favourable towards hormone-produced beef.”

Photo: Cnaol