A report from the European Commission is expected to attack the Canadian Government for poor testing methods on beef containing growth hormones.
The EU document is a bid to produce evidence to the WTO, to justify its ban on Canadian and US beef containing hormones and early drafts have been uncovered by the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The report condemns inadequate testing and tracking methods and says that there are equipment problems, with broken urine test machines, making it impossible for checks to be made since last June (1999).
EU inspectors also criticise identifying cattle by lot rather than individually, which according to the report, would prove serious in the event of an outbreak such as BSE.
By Monica Dobie, just-food.com correspondent
