On May
17th 2003 the United States, supported by Canada and Argentina, made a formal
complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the European Communities
de facto moratorium on the approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
"Regarding EC-level measures, the US and Canada asserted that the moratorium
applied by the EC since October 1998 on the approval of biotech products has
restricted imports of agricultural and food products from the US and Canada.
Regarding member State-level measures, the US and Canada asserted that a number
of EC member States maintain national marketing and import bans on biotech products
even though those products have already been approved by the EC for import and
marketing in the EC."
On Tuesday
February 7, 2006 the dispute panel sent it's preliminary ruling and recommendations
to the Parties for review. It finds that the European Union and six member states
had broken their obligations under WTO rules by not complying with their own
approval procedures and barring certain genetically modified crops and foods
from their markets.
The WTO panel consists of
three persons: Mr. Christian Häberli (chairman), Mr. Mohan Kumar,
Mr. Akio Shimizu. The final
decison is expected later this year or early 2007.
The preliminary findings emphasise that “the Panel
did not examine: whether biotech products in general are safe.”
the panel found that the EC moratorium on approvals for 27 GM crops between
1998 and 2003 were an “undue delay”and against the provisions of
the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS).
Safeguard measures taken by member states Austria, Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy and Luxembourg during the de facto moratorium were ruled to fail to meet
WTO requirements because their arguments and evidence did not include risk assessments
that rebutted the risk assessments of the “relevant EC scientific committees”.
The panel, after hearing scientists, had concluded that for the 27 GMOs at dispute
there was actually sufficient scientific evidence to conduct a proper risk assessment.
Therefore precautionary
measures, which would be acceptable in the absence of such means of risk assessment
were actually inadequate.
Most charges of the plaintiffs however have been either dismissed or it was
determined that no ruling was necessary on them. As long as the 1000 pages of
reasoning are not public a detailed analysis of the case seems impossible.
WTO
secrecy an outrage, Joint Press Release
of IATP, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, 8
February 2006
An
initial analysis of the WTO’s biotech dispute, by IATP's Steve Suppan,
9 February 2006
EC-Biotech:
Overview and Analysis of the Panels' Interim Report,
by Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), March 2006
World Trade Organisation:
WTO:
European Communities – Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech
product
[~300 pages]
WTO:
Report Findings [~800 pages]
WTO
Conclusions and Recommendations
Those Conclusions and Recommendations are based on two WTO key documents:
- Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
SPS
Agreement download
as pdf-file
- Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
TBT
Agreement download
as pdf-file
- WTO Case files with full documentation:
DISPUTE
DS291
United States vs. European Communities — Measures Affecting the Approval
and Marketing of Biotech Products
Dispute
DS 292 (Canada) Dispute
DS 293 (Argentina)
EU Commission:
Europe's
rules on GMOs and the WTO - Brussels, 7 February 2006
US government:
WTO
Upholds U.S. Challenge to European Ban on Biotech Food - Washington 8.
February 2006
Reuters: WTO Condemns EU Over GMO Moratorium
International Herald Tribune: WTO rules EU import ban illegal
Environment News Service. World Trade Panel Sides with Biotech Food Producing
Countries
The
Guardian: US wins WTO backing in war with Europe over GM food
seven.com:
Biotech industry hails WTO ruling
Trade
observatory: WTO GE Crop Ruling a Setback for National Safeguards
Greenpeace:
The US assault on biosafety
Greenpeace:
Briefing on the WTO dispute on GE organisms (May 2006)
Greenpeace:
Right to remain GMO-free overrides WTO ruling
Friends
of the Earth Europe: Trying to Force Feed the World - The
transatlantic trade dispute over genetically modified foods.
Friends
of the Earth Europe: GMOs in Europe and the WTO - Questions
and Answers
The EU regulatory framework covering GMOs, GM food and feed
Friends of the Earth: Leaked report: U.S. misled the world on biotech foods "victory"
Trade
observatory: The “EC Biotech Products” Ruling at the WTO
and the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
National
Bans in the Interim Report of the WTO-Panel
European Communities – Measures Affecting the Approval
and Marketing of Biotech Products - First
Written Submission (747 Kb)
WT/DS291 - Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products
(GMOs) Commission 17/05/2004
Oral
statement by the EC at the first meeting of the panel with the parties (73
Kb) PDF document
WT/DS293 - Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products
(GMOs) Commission 02/06/2004
Second
Written Submission by the European Communities (337 Kb) PDF document
WT/DS291 - Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products
(GMOs) Commission 19/07/2004
Supplementary
Rebuttal Submission by the European Communities (46 Kb)
WT/DS291 - Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products
(GMOs) Commission 15/11/2004