WTO ruling should benefit farmers

A World Trade Organization ruling against EU curbs on imports of genetically modified foods should bring great benefits to farmers and rural areas worldwide, U.S. officials said Wednesday. "The continuing adoption of agricultural biotechnology worldwide is evidence it provides tremendous benefits to farmers and rural communities," said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. But the European Union countered that the WTO panel vindicated its current regulations on biotech products, saying that there was never a European moratorium on the imports of genetically altered crops from the United States or elsewhere. A preliminary judgment Tuesday by a WTO panel concluded that the European Union had an effective ban on biotech foods for six years beginning in 1998, according to trade officials. The report largely sided with a legal complaint brought by the United States, Canada and Argentina over an EU moratorium on approval of new biotech foods, ruling that individual bans in six EU member states _ Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg _ violated international trade rules. The ruling - which runs to about 1,000 pages and is said to be one of the most complex the commerce body has issued - had been delayed several times. A final ruling is expected next month and can be appealed. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said agricultural biotech improves food security and helps reduce poverty worldwide. "It's a significant and positive development," added Susan Schwab, a deputy U.S. trade representative. "The proof will be in trade flows and the transparency and ease of the approval process." U.S. farm groups hailed the decision, as did members of the U.S. Congress from farm states. The farm groups had contended they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually in export sales of genetically modified crops to the EU. Types of corn, cotton and soybeans had all been blocked by the EU. "This decision is an important step toward opening the European markets to American farmers," said Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat. Sean Darragh, of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group for producers of genetically modified crops, said the ruling would be important to farmers in the United States and in 20 other countries that grow biotech crops. "The European Union's inaction has effectively blocked up to $300 million of U.S. agricultural exports annually to the detriment of American farmers," he said. The complainants claim there is no scientific evidence for the EU's actions and the moratorium has been an unfair barrier to producers of biotech foods who want to export to the EU. The EU ended its moratorium in 2004 when it allowed onto the market a modified strain of sweet corn, grown mainly in the United States. Brussels says the 25-nation bloc has approved the import of nine biotech crops since 2004, but Washington has said it will continue with its WTO case until it is convinced that all applications for approval are being decided on scientific rather than political grounds. "The panel found that there were delays in approving the products, which might be said to constitute a de facto moratorium during that period," said an EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a confidential report. "We dispute that a moratorium existed and we contest the claim that delays in the past were excessive. The panel clearly said that no moratorium currently exists," the official added. The ruling will open the door to more European customers for U.S. businesses but also will set an example for other world markets, said Leon Corzine, chairman of the National Corn Grower's Association, based in suburban St. Louis. But environmental group Friends of the Earth says the case undermines the right of governments to decide what is safe for their citizens, and pressures other countries - especially developing nations - to accept genetically modified foods against their will. The panel "has ruled that free trade should take precedence over the precautionary principle and the democratic right to regulate for the protection of either health or the environment," said Caroline Lucas, a European lawmaker representing the British Green Party. "Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=12202&start=1&control=217&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1].

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