EU Granted Delay on WTO Dispute

Argentina, Canada and the United States have given the European Union additional time to comply with the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling on the authorization of biotechnology products. The three countries will abstain from imposing punitive tariffs on EU products for the time being. The United States Office of Trade Representatives (USTR) announced in a press release that it will suspend the WTO dispute for a limited time. USTR Spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said that in the coming months, “the US will periodically evaluate EU progress toward normalizing trade against a set of benchmarks and timelines.” Canada and Argentina has likewise extended their deadline to February and June respectively. Under WTO ruling, the deadline was first scheduled on November 21, 2006 and extended up to January 11, 2008.

Hamel said that “that U.S. seed companies, farmers, and exporters continue to experience significant commercial losses as a result of the EU actions", and that  "the patience of U.S. stakeholders is close to exhaustion.” She also expressed her disappointment with France’s decision to impose a ban against Mon810 corn, the only biotech crop cultivated in Europe. According to Peter Mandelson, an EU Trade Commisioner, a group of biotech experts from the European Comission will meet later this month to discuss the WTO issue, as well as relevant concerns like the expiration of the biotech ban in Austria and Poland.

The USTR statement is available at http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2008/January/Statement_on_EC-Biotech_Dispute.html For more information, including backgrounds on the WTO dispute, visit http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/news/320.docu.html