FARM Commissioner Franz Fischler has said the Union is close to beginning negotiations on a compensation package . .

Date: 16/03/2000

. . . to end its dispute with Washington over hormone-treated beef. Fischler said EU and US officials were discussing the possibility of increasing American exports of hormone-free beef to compensate US farmers for lost sales caused by the Union's ban on imports of hormone-treated beef. Hopes of ending the row rose last week after EU vets approved new American controls designed to avert the threat of a Union ban on all US meat exports.