US Poised to Challenge EU's Resistance to GM Crops

January 15, 2003

I thought this might be interesting...

Misty

http://www..com

US Poised To Challenge EU's Resistance to GM Crops

By Edward Alden and Guy de Jonquieres The Financial Times

1-14-3

The US has talked for so long about a legal challenge to the

European Union's resistance to genetically modified crops that the

threat has begun to sound like a tape recording. Now Washington may

be poised to put words into action.

Last week, Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, raised the

stakes by calling for the launch soon of a World Trade Organisation

case against the EU. Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner,

immediately promised a vigorous defence.

If the US challenge goes ahead, it will be a huge gamble. It would

be the biggest and most highly charged in a long line of

transatlantic trade disputes that the WTO has been called on to

adjudicate since the mid-1990s.

Although a final ruling could take up to two years, litigation would

strain US-EU ties and imperil efforts to inject much-needed momentum

into the Doha trade round. Tensions could spill over into other

areas of transatlantic relations.

Furthermore, a US victory could prove pyrrhic. It would risk turning

EU opinion even more strongly against genetically modified

organisms - and the WTO - and kill off faltering European Commission

attempts to restart the approvals process.

The US might then seek WTO approval to retaliate against European

exports. That could further enrage the EU and lead it to activate

$4bn (£2.49bn) of sanctions against the US, authorised in a separate

dispute over an American corporate tax law.

Washington is keenly aware of the dangers. Indeed, the issue is so

sensitive that George W. Bush's cabinet may take the final decision,

probably later this month. However, Mr Zoellick's outspoken comments

suggest he is confident a WTO case will be launched.

Mr Zoellick has made clear that his patience snapped late last year,

when Zambia and Zimbabwe spurned offers of emergency US food aid

that could contain GM corn, saying that accepting it could

jeopardise their agricultural exports to the EU. He accused the EU

of " immoral " behaviour, claiming some member states had linked their

aid to African rejection of GM foods.

" The reason the logjam has finally broken is that this is no longer

about Europe but about Africa, India and the rest of the world, "

said a US official.

US trade officials see parallels with their successful WTO challenge

in the 1990s to the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef. Although the

ban has not been lifted, they say the WTO ruling discouraged other

countries from imposing similar curbs.

A US challenge on GM products would pose an even bigger test than

the hormones case for the WTO's still sketchy jurisprudence on food

safety. It would target the EU's de facto moratorium on new GM crop

approvals imposed in 1998, and possibly a proposed directive

requiring the traceability and labelling of GM products put on sale.

However, legal experts are divided over the prospects for US

success. The moratorium could be difficult to attack, because it is

semi-official and not based on firm legislation, and the planned

directive is not yet law.

" The US does not have a cast-iron case. It has a toehold case, " says

John Jackson of Washington's Georgetown University, a leading

authority on world trade law. " I don't think current WTO rules can

handle a case on GM products. There has to be a negotiation. "

Nonetheless, he and other lawyers believe that even if the WTO did

not uphold all its arguments, Washington might win enough to get the

moratorium condemned.

Some in Brussels also doubt whether a case would go their way. David

Byrne, the health and consumer protection commissioner, has

acknowledged the EU's defence would be based on " very narrow

grounds " .

The Commission still hopes it can fend off US threats by showing

that the EU is moving to open its market. Last month, in a symbolic

gesture, it used its powers under existing legislation to approve

two oils derived from GM cotton.

Brussels insists the best way to get the moratorium lifted is

through small steps, designed gradually to win over EU ministers and

reassure public opinion, environmentalists and other campaigners

hostile to GM foods.

However, the strategy will only work if EU governments co-operate.

Even optimists in Brussels are unsure that they will. " This is an

area where there are no guarantees, " says one official. " Every

prediction we have made so far has been confounded. "

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/St

January 15, 2003

Thanks, Misty.

Could you please put these notes on my BB instead of my email? They deserve

a lot more exposure than just me. Besides, I think doing that gives your

'site a lot more daily exposure at the same time.

Namaste`

Walt

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<mistytrepke

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 9:07 PM

US Poised to Challenge EU's Resistance to

GM Crops