WTO ruling against EU unlikely to have any effect
HELENA SPONGENBERG
11.05.2006 @ 17:56 CET
The European halt on the import of genetically modified products violated international rules, the world trade body WTO has ruled.
In a report leaked to the press on Thursday (11 May), the WTO argued that the EU was wrong in preventing the use of new modified varieties of corn, soybeans and cotton between 1998 and 2004 on its market without it being scientifically justified.
Austria will keep its ban on GMOs despite WTO criticism (Photo: EUobserver.com)
The Geneva-based organisation also criticised the six EU countries with bans on biotech products already approved by the European Commission.
But questions remain on what impact the ruling will actually have on the EU.
"Europe will continue to set its own rules on the import and sale of GMO foods," said Peter Power, a commission spokesman.
"It is self-evidently not the case - as the US sometimes claims - that the EU operates a moratorium on the approval of GM foods," he said, adding that the bloc has approved nine products since last May.
"Nothing in this panel report will compel us to change," Mr Power stated.
The 1,050-page report did not comment on the touchy issue of whether GMOs are safe or whether they can be considered comparable to conventional products.
"It's not a victory for the Unites States or the biotech industry," said Adrian Bebb, a biotech campaigner for the environmental group Friends of the Earth.
"It's still possible to impose tough restrictions on GMOs to protect the people and the environment from genetically modified crops," he said and added that the US through clever public relations had made it look like the EU lost the case.
National GMO bans
The WTO ruling also criticised the member states with national bans on GMO products - Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg.
"We will stick by our policy of being very reluctant [towards GMOs]," said Daniel Kapp, spokesman of the Austrian ministry of science. He claimed that the WTO ruling would have no effect on Austria's biotech policy.
Vienna has based the ban on the fact that no long term health safety tests have been done and that imports would likely lead to the accidental spillage of the seed into the environment.
The ruling was also welcomed by CropLife International - a global federation of biotech producers.
"Regardless of the outcome of this case, it is clear that biotechnology is here to stay," said head of the federation Christian Verschueren.
The world's three biggest biotech producers
Argentina, Canada and the United States filed a trade dispute to the WTO in 2003 over the EU freeze on biotech foods, saying it was an unfair barrier to producers of GM products who wanted to export to the European Union.
They accused the EU moratorium of being about protectionism rather than science.
"The approval process and the consumer safety standards applied in the EU may be more stringent than in the US," said Mr Power.
"But GM imports to the EU are rising especially from competitive exporters like Brazil and Chile," he added.