I wrote an article a couple of weeks back highlighting the ongoing trade and tariff tensions between the USA and the European Union, and calling for a degree of maturity from both sides. Well, the good news is, just a few days before the new US trade tariffs on cheese, mineral water, salami, and so on were going to come into force, a provisional deal has been worked out.  Now, I’m not going to claim that it was because of this article that something got done; that’s for others to say. Seriously, though, this is good news.

The full details of the deal have still not been confirmed, but according to the Reuters report it looks like that the European Union has agreed to allow an additional twenty thousand tons of beef through its borders for the next three years, with forty five thousand coming the year after that. Here’s the kicker, though; it’s only beef that has not been treated with growth hormones. For their part, the US government will not levy the large tariffs that were due to come into effect on Saturday.

There’s been some play made of the fact that hormone free cows represent only a niche part of the beef industry, and that this might not be anything more than a token gesture by the EU, as it is more expensive to raise cattle that have not been injected with growth stimulating chemicals. I must admit that I find this rather incredible. However, it’s possible that this could be an opportunity for a few enterprising producers to make some money. Hormones aside, American beef is much sought after in Europe, and, as the market dictates, so people will follow. If there’s money to be made, maybe there will be a move away from artificially accelerating the growth of cattle.

At least, this is the hope. There’s certainly a left wing case to be made for wanting to keep prices low, and in the range of those who aren’t making a great deal of money; one way of doing this, of course, is to lower prices by decreasing the growth cycle of cattle. Of course, as well, if a cow takes less time to reach maturity, there is a lower cost, environmentally, in terms of the amount of food it consumes (which costs energy to grow and transport) and the water needed. Water security, of course, promises to be the new Energy Independence for the next few years.

In any case, I guess the conclusion is this; it’s another good sign that the Obama administration is prepared to compromise with our allies, to reach conclusions that are good for both sides. There were murmurs last month, during his visit to Europe, that not enough ha d come of those talks; It seems like we are now starting to see the fruits of those labors. Now, if we could just get some agreement on EU involvement in Afghanistan, and in Iran… those, however, are stories for another day. In the meantime, Hurray for cheese!