EU regrets 'unfortunate' US spat over beef ban

The European Union on Friday warned of a "most unfortunate" souring of trade relations with the US after Washington relaunched a fight against an EU ban on imports of hormone-treated American beef. The US on Thursday reignited the long-standing feud, taking Brussels by surprise with just four weeks left in the Obama Administration.
Washington said it would revert back to a World Trade Organization decision in 1998 that ruled that an EU ban on imports of US beef violated WTO obligations and was not based on scientific evidence. "The EU has fully complied, both in the letter and in spirit," with a 2009 compromise deal, the commission, which handles bloc trade policy, said in a statement.