E.U. Push on Animal Welfare May Open New Trade Front With U.S.

One of the first things the European Union’s new health and consumer affairs commissioner did after taking office was to approve the planting of a genetically modified potato in Europe — riling environmentalists but giving hope to U.S. officials that an end to a long trade dispute over biotech crops might be in sight. But John Dalli, who began his first official visit to Washington on Monday, may open a new, potentially disruptive front: animal welfare. In an interview ahead of the trip, Mr. Dalli said he planned to tell his American counterparts that he intended to propose a new law on animal welfare. According to E.U. experts familiar with the plans, Mr. Dalli’s law probably would promote the use of cruelty-free labels for some meat products, which could lead to European consumers shunning U.S. products. He signaled there would be no end to Europe’s bans on imports of chickens washed with chlorine and beef treated with hormones, which have long irritated American meat exporters. And he said that Europe needed further time to determine whether to allow imports of meat from cloned animals, which U.S. regulators have declared safe to eat. Promoting higher standards for animal welfare would not only address the concerns of a growing number of Europeans who — in the wake of mad cow disease and dioxin-tainted poultry of recent years — have become sensitized to the way animals are treated in certain industries, Mr. Dalli said...more

I wonder how our Lonesome Dove friends, Gus McCrea and Capt. Woodrow Call would have handled our trade relations with Mr. Dalli?

I figure they would dally Dalli.

Gus would distract Dalli with a long dissertation on how the female species really isn't attracted to animal rights activists. Meanwhile, Capt. Woodrow Call would slip a rope over Dalli's upper torso, take a dally, and drag him up to the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium. Kind of a dally and drag approach to international relations.

In a very short period of time Dalli would emerge from the Emporium saying, "What the hell, they're just critters."

Dally and drag. Sounds like a promising new approach to political science.