EU may tread fine line on GMOs in WTO talks - aide

October 22, 1999
  U.S. rethinks  approach to biotech food regulation
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reuters
[BR] via NewsEdge Corporation :

The European Union will seek to
''clarify'' a key food safety
agreement when dealing with the
thorny issue of genetically
modified (GM) crops in upcoming
World Trade Organization talks,
an EU aide said on Thursday.

John Richardson, deputy head of
the European Commission's
delegation in Washington, said he
doubted the EU would call for the
outright reopening of the
landmark food safety agreement
that was part of the 1994 Uruguay
Round trade pact.

``Reopening? I think we'd call it
clarification,'' Richardson said
in remarks to a trade group.
``The big issue is, do you build
on exactly what's there or do you

try to change what's there? And I
say 'we keep what we have and we
build on it and we clarify it'.''

The United States opposes
reopening the Sanitary and
Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement,
which requires food safety and
animal and plant health rules to
be based on science.

The SPS pact provided the legal
basis for the United States to
successfully challenge the EU's
10-year-old ban on beef from
cattle raised with artificial
growth hormones.

In that case, the WTO ruled in
favor of the United States and
Canada and later authorized both
countries to levy punitive duties
on about $125 million worth of
European goods after the EU
refused to drop its ban.
                                         
Over the past two years, the                     
United States has lost about $200
million of corn sales to Europe
because of delays in the EU
approval process for genetically
modified crops.

Because of EU consumer concerns
that have paralyzed the EU
approval process, six GM
varieties that account for a
fraction of U.S. corn production
remain banned in Europe.

That has had a chilling effect on
all U.S. corn exports to the EU
for fear that a small amount of
an unapproved variety could show
up in a cargo and be rejected by
EU officials.

US CRITICIZES CANADA GM PROPOSAL

The United States has proposed
four criteria for rules governing
the approval of GM crops, but has
not specified how it wants the
issue raised in the WTO talks.

Tim Galvin, administrator of the
U.S. Agriculture Department's
Foreign Agricultural Service,
told the trade audience a
Canadian proposal to form a WTO
working group on GM food appeared
too broad to achieve much
progress.

The United States will push for
rules to require countries to
establish a GM approval systems
that are transparent,
predictable, timely and
science-based, Galvin said.

As the talks progress, the United
States may offer more detailed
suggestions, such as how long
countries can take to make a
decision on GM approvals, he
said.

Recent remarks by new European
Commission President Romano Prodi
have raised U.S. hopes for
progress on biotechnology food
issues.

In a speech widely read by U.S.
agriculture and trade officials,
Prodi suggested creation of an
EU-wide independent food
regulatory agency that would work
similarly to U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, Galvin said.

That could help restore EU
consumer confidence, which has
been badly shaken by a series of
food scandals in the 1990s, and
increase acceptance of GM crops
in Europe, he said.

The United States welcomed
Prodi's statement that the EU
needs to better define what it
means by the ``precautionary
principle,'' a concept the EU has
used to justify its ban on beef
produced with artificial growth
hormones.

But even with an independent
regulatory agency, the EU still
might take a different view on GM
crops than the United States,
Richardson said.

European consumers view
scientists as ``naive'' about
potential risks and expect their
political institutions to err on
the side of caution, he said.

EU consumers will learn to accept
GM food only if they see some
benefit, such as lower prices or
higher nutritional content,
Richardson said. ``I suspect it
may take some time. It may take a
generation,'' he said. REUTERS@

[Copyright 1999, Reuters]