Posted on 20-8-2003
US
Up's GE Food Row With Europe
Andrew Osborn, August 19, 2003, The
Guardian
Europe's dispute with America over genetically modified food
escalated yesterday after Washington asked the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) to force the EU to lift its five-year-old ban on new GM
food products.
In a move which raises the prospect of a fresh trade war just
a month before crucial world trade talks in Mexico, America
requested the formation of a WTO dispute settlement panel to
decide once and for all who is right on GM technology. The call
was backed by Argentina and Canada.
Washington said it hoped that the panel - which could take up
to 18 months to pronounce - would rule that the EU's failure
to allow the sale of 30 US biotech products on precautionary
grounds was illegal.
The EU response was immediate and curt. It said it regretted
the move, blocked the formation of the panel (something it is
allowed to do only once), and claimed that the case would confuse
already sceptical European consumers.
"We regret this move to an unnecessary litigation,"
said Pascal Lamy, EU trade commissioner.
"The EU's regulatory system for GMOs [genetically modified
organisms] is clear, transparent, reasonable and non-discriminatory.
We are confident that the WTO will confirm that the EU fully
respects its obligations."
EU environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom warned that the
US move could backfire.
"There should be no doubt that it is not our intention
to create trade barriers. But my concern is that this request
will muddy the waters of the debate in Europe. We have to create
confidence among citizens for GMOs and then allow them to choose."
A de facto EU moratorium on all new GM product approvals has
been in place since 1998 because of widespread public unease
about the technology.
The EU has recently finalised strict new rules on the authorisation
and labelling of such products which it argues means that the
moratorium is now dead in the water and that new GM products
can be approved.
However, most EU member states are still dragging their feet
over letting in new products and Washington is growing impatient.
If it wins the WTO case the EU could be forced to authorise
the sale and marketing of the 30 biotech products in question
and might have to compensate US farmers for their losses.
Those are estimated at nearly $300m (£189m) a year in lost corn
exports alone.
Linnet Deily, the US WTO envoy, said yesterday that the EU's
restrictive GM policy was unfair to other countries and held
back a technology that holds "great promise for raising
farmer productivity, reducing hunger and improving health in
the developing world, and improving the environment".
However anti-GM campaigners said the US was trying to force
unwanted food on Europe.
"The US administration, funded by the likes of GMO giant
Monsanto, is using the undemocratic and secretive WTO to force
feed the world GM foods," said Martin Rocholl, of Friends
of the Earth Europe.
"Decisions about the food we eat should be made in Europe
and not in the White House, the WTO or Monsanto's HQ.
"We welcome the European commission's commitment to fight
this aggressive US policy."
The EU argued yesterday that even the American public wanted
GM food labelled, saying that a recent poll found "a whopping
92% of Americans" favour biotech crop labelling.
GM food is just one of several issues where the EU and the US
are at loggerheads.
Disagreements over steel tariffs, US tax breaks for multinationals,
and the US practice of feeding cattle growth hormones continue
to sour the transatlantic relationship.
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