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News :: Agriculture |
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US Escalates GM Food Row With Europe |
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by Andrew Osborn
(No verified email address) |
19 Aug 2003
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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. |
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.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk |
