| 8/13/2003 EU Regrets US Action Over GM Foods - 8/8 Business Day The United States, Canada and Argentina on Thursday asked the World Trade Organisation to rule over the de facto EU moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). "We very much regret this decision that's apparently been taken," said a spokeswoman for EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne. "We think our system of GMO authorisation is clear, transparent and non-discriminatory, and complies with WTO rules," she said. The EU last month agreed to two new GMO directives, which it said would open the way to lifting the five-year-old moratorium on the import and cultivation of bio-engineered food by member states. One directive required that foods and animal feed be labelled if they contain at least 0.9% of GM ingredients; the other required that GM foods' origin can be traced. But the United States said the new labelling and tracking rules made no difference to its case, as the EU moratorium was still in place. "For five years, the EU has kept in place a ban on biotech approvals, a ban which is unsupported even by the EU's own scientific studies," US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said. "This trade barrier harms farmers and consumers around the world by denying them the benefits of productive, nutritious and environmentally friendly biotech products," he said. The United States, which has the world's biggest biotech industry, said it would ask the WTO to set up a dispute settlement panel to arbitrate in the GMO case. The WTO panel, a type of international court for trade spats, can be set up at the request of a country after a 60-day consultation period between opposing sides. That period has expired in the US-EU case. The biotechnology dispute is raging ahead of an international meeting of trade ministers in Cancun, Mexico on September 10-14 to take stock of stalled WTO negotiations to free up global trade. The GMO row is one of a range of disputes between the world's two biggest trading blocs that some observers fear could scupper the Cancun meeting's chances of success. Agricultural subsidies, another bone of contention between the EU and United States, are expected to be one of the main obstacles confronting policymakers in the Mexican resort. Related Link: http://www.bday.co.za |
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