Canada Trade Europe

U.S. and Canadian pressure may delay a European ban on imports of furs from animals trapped using cruel methods, diplomats said in Brussels. European Community environmental ministers are expected to vote on the proposal at a two-day meeting starting Thursday. The ban, which would go into effect in January, 1995, would apply to furs from countries where trappers use leg-hold traps and other methods considered inhumane.

The European Union upheld a ban on imports of hormone-treated meat and proceeded Monday with a law to reduce the noise of plane engines. EU foreign ministers said they won't make a May 13 deadline, set by the World Trade Organization, to end their decade-old ban on imports of hormone-treated beef from the United States and Canada. German Deputy Foreign Minister Guenter Verheugen said the European Commission, the EU executive body, will negotiate with Washington on what compensation the U.S.

EC to Ban Some Fur Imports: The European Community, ignoring U.S. and Canadian demands for a delay, agreed to ban imports of animal fur from countries using inhumane leg-hold traps, beginning in 1995. But under heavy pressure from France, EC environmental ministers decided to put off outlawing the traps in the EC itself until 1995--two years later than planned. France expects fierce opposition to an outright ban from a powerful domestic hunting lobby.

The European Union upheld a ban on imports of hormone-treated meat and proceeded Monday with a law to reduce the noise of plane engines. EU foreign ministers said they won't make a May 13 deadline, set by the World Trade Organization, to end their decade-old ban on imports of hormone-treated beef from the United States and Canada. German Deputy Foreign Minister Guenter Verheugen said the European Commission, the EU executive body, will negotiate with Washington on what compensation the U.S.