SPS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES EU GMO RULES AS POSSIBLE WTO CHALLENGE LOOMS

At the 7-8 November meeting of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina and the Philippines again raised concerns regarding the EU's continued de facto moratorium on the approval of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
(see BRIDGES Weekly, 27 June 2002,
 http://www.ictsd.org/biores/02-06-27/story3.htm). Australia also added concerns regarding the EU's proposed labelling and traceability regulations. For its part, Argentina submitted a set of questions, which the EU said they would respond to in writing (G/SPS/GEN/354, searchable at
 http://docsonline.wto.org/). The European Commission -- speaking on behalf of the EU -- expressed its frustration that nothing had happened on these issues in the EU since the July SPS Committee meeting, but also stressed
that it was a delicate and extremely political process.

The US has yet to decide whether to formally challenge the EU regulations at the WTO. The most recent call for a challenge has come from US agriculture groups that have urged the US government in a letter on 8 November to "engage the EU in a WTO dispute settlement proceeding against its illegal moratorium". European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne in a recent interview acknowledged that the legal defences for the EU in case of a dispute "would be very narrow", but also
warned that even if the US won the challenge, they might risk a consumer backlash in the EU which would undermine the Commission's efforts to build public confidence in GM foods.

The EU's responses to questions posed by WTO Members regarding the proposed labelling and traceability regulations are contained in the WTO documents G/SPS/GEN/337 and 338.

ICTSD reporting; "Warning on GMO rules delay," FT, 12 November 2002.