U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman today announced that the US together with Argentina, Canada and Egypt will file a WTO case against the EU over it`s "illegal five-year moratorium" on GMO approvals. The EU regrets the US decision as "misguided and unneccesary". It also rebuffed the US claims that GMOs were necessary to feed the world and points to the fact that the US is opposing international regulations on GMO trade under the Biosaftey Protocol. The case does not seem to have any practical implications as the EU moratorium in it`s present form is not intended to last longer than a WTO dispute settlement process usually takes until decided. However the decision to take the case to the WTO may now force the World Trade Organisation to arbitrate on the globally contentious question of national sovereignty regarding the use of GMOs and will take the bilateral trade dispute on a global level.Greenpeace in a first statement commented: "The US administration is effectively declaring a war on consumers. But it is a war the US will not win. Greenpeace strongly condemns this blatant attempt to bully the European Union and is confident that this will only serve to reinforce consumer rejection of GMOs. All countries are entitled to refuse GMOs and to demand mandatory labelling of GMO products."<a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/us_wto_13_05_03.pdf">USDA press release May 13th</a></p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/eu_wto_13_05_03.pdf">EU Commissions press release and background May 13th</a></p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/us_wto_consultation_request.pdf">Official US request to WTO with complete list of pending EU approvals</a></p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/nyt_wto_14_05_03.pdf">New York Times report</a></p><p><a href="http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1051389993328&p=1012571727092">Financial Times report</a></p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/wto_editorials.pdf">Editorials in Wall Financial Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal</a></p><p><a href="http://www.biosicherheit.de/aktuell/204.doku.html">Deutsch: Ausführlicher Hintergrundbericht zur WTO-Klage der USA bei "bioSicherheit"</a></p><p><strong>WTO rules soon direct law in the EU?</strong></p><p>The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, Siegbert Alber, has suggested that WTO law is directly applicable where the incompatibility of a Community measure with WTO law has been found in WTO Dispute Settlement Bodies recommendations or decisions and the Community has failed to implement the recommendations or decisions within the reasonable period of time allowed by the WTO. He produced this ground breaking opinion in a damage claim of meat producers, unable to import beef raised with hormones from the US. The US hormone-beef had been ruled to be save by the WTO in 1998, yet the EU still refuses to lift its ban on such products. If Albers opinion was adopted by the Court, WTO rules could directly superseed EU legislation in the future.</p><p><a href="http://www.curia.eu.int/en/actu/communiques/cp03/aff/cp0339en.htm">European Court of Justice press release</a>