By Brian Johnson - 12th May 2006
Green MEPs have called for an overhaul of the WTO’s trade dispute procedures, after the Geneva based organisation’s latest ruling on GM foods.
The WTO on Thursday backed an earlier February preliminary ruling that the EU had violated international trade rules by unfairly blocking the import of GM crops.
“The WTO is not the right body to decide on its members environmental policies,” said Jill Evans MEP.
“There is a massive opposition in Europe to GM products. We believe that it is for democratically elected politicians to make these decisions, not an unelected trade regulation body, which operates at a great distance from the reality of everyday life.”
The case centred around the EU’s six year moratorium on GM products in 1998, that was prompted by the refusal of a number of member states, including current EU presidency holders Austria, to approve the introduction of GM seeds.
The WTO ruling also criticised the continuing national GM bans or ‘safeguard clauses’ still in place in six EU countries.
The US, Canada and Argentina, who brought the case argued that the national bans were effectively trade barriers, for products that they insist are safe.
“We must defend the right to establish GM-free zones across the EU-and work to protect local consumer health, biodiversity and the growing organic and non-GM farming sectors,” said fellow Green/EFA group MEP Caroline Lucas.
“The European commission should more proactively defend the bans of certain member states, which are fully justified under the precautionary principle,” said the group’s co-president Monica Frassoni.
An Austrian EU presidency spokesman dismissed the WTO panel’s criticism of national safeguard clauses.
“We will stick by our policy of being very reluctant [on GM],” said the spokesman.
The ruling appeared to cause little anguish within the commission, who have previously argued that since the introduction of a case-by-case GM approvals regime in 2004 the WTO’s criticism has become irrelevant.
“Europe will continue to set its own rules on the import and sale of GMO foods,” said a commission spokesman.
“Nothing in the report will compel us to change.”
Environmental groups backed MEP calls to overhaul the WTO trade dispute system.
“The WTO is the wrong body for settling trade disputes,” said Friends of the Earth’s Sonja Meister.
“It has a long history of putting corporate interests firmly ahead of environmental protection, public safety and democracy. It is time that environment-related disputes were taken away from the WTO.”
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