United States President George Bush launched a legal challenge at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this week to force Europe to accept imports of US genetically modified (GM) crops.
Raising fears of a transatlantic trade war, Washington described Europe’s five-year-old ban on GM imports as unscientific and a violation of WTO rules.
”Biotech food helps nourish the world’s hungry population,” said Robert Zoellick, the US’s leading trade negotiator.
Recently Brussels upped the stakes in a separate transatlantic dispute over tax breaks for some of the US’s largest exporters. Europe’s chief trade negotiator, Pascal Lamy, has given Washington until September to change its laws or face a $4-billion sanctions bill.
European Union officials described the challenge as ”legally unwarranted, economically unfounded and politically unhelpful”, and accused the US of bringing the case against Europe to put pressure on other countries that are introducing curbs on GM imports.
”The European Commission finds it unacceptable that such legitimate concerns are used by the US against the EU policy on [GM food],” officials said.
More than 70% of US soybeans and one-third of their corn crop come from biotech seeds. European officials deny that there is a moratorium on GM imports, but several member states have blocked all applications since 1998.
The case is likely to inflame opinion among environmental lobbyists and anti-globalisation protesters ahead of a meeting of trade ministers in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
Greens accused the US of bowing to pressure from its powerful biotech lobby. ”By trying to use the WTO to force GM foods on European consumers, the US is launching the mother of all trade wars and could bring about the institution’s collapse,” said Caroline Lucas, a Green party MEP.
Under WTO rules, member states are allowed to block imports if they can prove there is a danger to health or the environment.
Despite pressure, member states are determined to keep the ban, even though studies have so far failed to uncover any dangerous side-effects. — Â