The BBC reports:
The European Parliament has backed a deal that will increase EU imports of beef from the US and Canada and help European food exporters.
A row over growth hormones used on North American cattle ranches led to a trade war lasting more than 20 years.
The new deal sets an annual EU quota of 48,200 tonnes for high-quality North American beef from cattle that have not been treated with growth hormones.
North America will lift import tariffs on a range of European farm produce.
An EU ban on hormone-treated meat and meat products remains in place, even though the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in 1997 that it was illegal.
The EU ban, dating back to 1988, was based on concerns about the addition of six hormones to more than 90% of American beef.
But now, US farmers are no longer using the hormones, according to Robert Sturdy MEP, a UK Conservative and Vice-President of the European Parliament's Trade Committee.
So who "won" this WTO dispute?
Was it the EU, because it gets to keep the ban on hormone treated beef?
Was it the U.S. and Canada, who now get to export more non-hormone treated beef? (And by the way, is it true that "US farmers are no longer using the hormones"? I was not aware of that.)
Was it the WTO dispute settlement system, which (after quite some time) encouraged the parties to find a trade liberalizing compromise?