Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 23 • 25th June 2003
US Takes Next Step In EU Biotech Challenge
The US on 19 June announced it would request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to examine its complaint against the EC’s continued de facto moratorium on the approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), after tUS-EC consultations had proven inconclusive (see BRIDGES Weekly, 14 May 2003). Pressure is also growing on Egypt to launch a dispute, after it decided to withdraw from joining the US case as a third party.
US to request panel
The US in a statement noted it was "disappointed but not surprised that these consultations have not resulted in any changes to the EU’s five year old illegal and unscientific moratorium". The US is likely to submit its request at the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body on 21 July. If the request is rejected by the EC as expected, the second request, which would automatically lead to the establishment of the panel, could be submitted on 29 August. The US pointed out that a panel request would not prevent the EU from "following through on their promises to reverse course and end the moratorium".
According to EU sources, the US Office of the Trade Representative has told the EU that it would drop the case if the EU adopted its traceability and labelling regulations that would result in a lifting of the moratorium. These regulations have been submitted to the European Parliament for a second reading on 3 July, and could be adopted by October 2003. Adoption, however, might be delayed if the Parliament approved a different version of the regulations than that adopted by Ministers in late-2002 (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 11 December 2002).
Egypt under pressure to launch dispute
In a letter to the European Consumers’ Organisation, Egypt declared its intention not to join the motion of arbitration launched by the US. It remains unclear, however, whether Egypt will launch a separate dispute as announced by the US on 13 May (see BRIDGES Weekly, 14 May 2003, referenced above). Egypt is reportedly engaged in internal consultations to determine whether the country is actually negatively affected by the EU’s moratorium and whether it has an interest in launching a dispute.
Meanwhile, pressure on Egypt to join the dispute is growing in the US. In a letter to Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Maher, US Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Committee on Finance (R, Iowa), suggested that a decision against a complaint might harm Egypt’s prospects for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US. "One of the criteria that ought to be used to determine with whom the United States negotiates future FTAs is whether a country shares the same vision of the global trading system as does the United States," he noted. "I certainly would like to be able to include Egypt in that camp."
EC responds to consultation requests
Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru have joined the US request as third parties. Argentina and Canada, which are also undertaking separate proceedings, have yet to announce whether they will request a panel. The consultations initiated by the US and Argentina were held jointly, while the Canada-EC consultations were held separately.
In its response to the requests to join consultations, the EC noted that it was not aware of any exports from Australia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru being affected by EC biotech measures. The EC also pointed out that several Australian states had enacted different types of ‘moratoria’ on commercially-grown GM crops while Mexico had suspended authorisation for large-scale commercial growing of GM corn due to concerns over potential impacts on wild relatives and traditional crops. In addition, the EC highlighted that "no living modified organisms can at present be grown or introduced into New Zealand" under the country’s legislation and noted that transgenic foods and GMOs were not allowed for import, sale, production or marketing in Peru. The EC concluded that the dispute "may therefore have important implications" for these countries.
For additional information on the US-EC biotech dispute, see http://www.ictsd.org/issarea/environment/biotech_case.htm.
ICTSD reporting.