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Advisory / BIOTECHNOLOGY

US appears split over biotech food case: EU 

WASHINGTON (November 24 2002) : The Bush administration appears to be split over whether to bring a trade case against the European Union for blocking imports of genetically modified crops, EU officials said on Friday.

"It's clear that not everybody in the US government agrees on a WTO case," said one EU official. While the US Trade Representative's office appears eager to bring a case against the EU before the World Trade Organisation, "it's quite clear the State Department is much more cautious," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. US farm and biotech groups recently stepped up pressure on the Bush administration to persuade the EU to lift it's four-year-old moratorium on the approval of genetically modified crops.

The moratorium has resulted in a defacto ban on imports of genetically modified corn from the United States. The EU position is driven by consumer fears over the safety of the food products, even though US officials maintain there is no evidence that the modified crops pose any threat.

Any US trade challenge could further strain relations with Europe at a time when the Bush administration's tariffs on imported steel and rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming has alienated many Europeans. Last week, a coalition of 30 domestic agricultural groups urged US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to bring a WTO case against the EU if Brussels does not drop the moratorium.

The US industry groups also want the EU to change proposals that require products made from genetically modified crops to be labelled and traced to their source.
The EU council of agricultural ministers could put the finishing touches on those proposals next week.

Nine of the EU's 15 members are opposed to lifting the moratorium until the new labelling and tractability legislation is in place. That is not expected before next summer and could take even longer, EU officials said.

A WTO challenge by the United States could keep the moratorium in place even longer by encouraging EU member states to delay taking any action until the case is resolved, the aides said.

But Isi Siddiqui, vice president at CropLife America, a farm chemical and biotech industry group, said US industry has nothing to lose by pursuing the case since there is no guarantee the EU will ever voluntarily lift its moratorium.

Bush administration officials recently have stepped up their criticism of the EU, saying its moratorium prompted some African nations to refuse US food aid because of fears it could contain genetically modified crops. The EU has "to do a better job of addressing the concern in sub-Saharan Africa, US Commerce Under-secretary Grant Aldonas told reporters on Thursday. "Otherwise people are going to die" of starvation."

Willy Helin, a spokesman for the European Commission's delegation to Washington, said the comments were out of line. "We sincerely believe those comments and those attacks were misplaced," Helin said."We do not tell countries where and how to buy their goods."

However, the EU has told countries in Southern Africa that genetically modified crops examined so far by scientific officials "were safe for health," said another EU official.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy plans to carry that message when he travels next week to Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa, the aide added.

Source: Business Recorder