Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Sunday the European Union has leaned on “fake science” to bar U.S. beef imports, hurting American farmers and ranchers.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ms. Rollins said it is an example of the trade imbalance driving President Trump’s latest round of tariffs on imports.
“Here is the bottom line: they are using fake science and unsubstantiated claims to not take our products,” she said. “So it isn’t just that they have high tariffs. It is the way they have treated our products.”
Ms. Rollins said the U.S. cannot get corn into Mexico and dairy into Canada. She said that Honduras buys more pork and poultry than the entire EU.
The EU bars hormone-treated meat from the U.S., maintaining that studies have shown there are potential health risks associated with the consumption of such meat. The ban has led to the long-standing trade dispute between the EU and the U.S.
“That is just absolute bull. It is not correct and it is not appropriate,” Ms. Rollins said. “Our supplies, our farmers and ranchers, we produce the safest, the most secure, the best food in the world.”
“So for the EU to say, ‘Oh my goodness, we can’t do it because of this reason,’ is absolutely wrong and it is not based on sound science,” she said.
