Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
WTOpaneldisputeonbiotechproducts
In May 2003, Argentina, Canada, and the United States requested
the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) to constitute a Panel in pursuance of their complaints concern-
ing the EU's authorization system for GMO. In its reports circulated to
Members in September 2006, the WTO Panel found that the European
Commission applied a general
de facto
moratorium on the approval of
biotech products as of June 1999 that led to undue delays in the com-
pletion of the approval procedures. Further, the national safeguard mea-
sures introduced by six member-states before the establishment of the
Panel were considered as violation of the EC's obligations under the
Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement).
The Panel found that the Commission acted inconsistently with its obli-
gations with regard to all of the safeguard measures at issue, because
these measures were not based on risk assessments satisfying the def-
inition of the SPS Agreement
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and hence could be presumed to be
maintained without sufficient evidence. The Panel reports were adopted
by the DSB in November 2006. At the DSB meeting on December 10,
2006, the European Commission announced its intention to implement
adequate measures to comply with its WTO obligations within a reason-
able period of time, given the complexity and sensitivity of the issues
involved.
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A first step to resolve the trade dispute was taken with the attempts of
the European Commission ordering Austria to lift its safeguard clauses
it had placed on GM maize. With the proposed amendment of Direc-
tive 2001/18/EC the Commission expects that EU member states now
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Article 5.1 of The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosan-
itary Measures (SPS Agreement) of April 15, 1994, demands “an assessment of
risks to human, animal or plant life or health, taking into account risk assessment
techniques developed by the relevant international organizations” (http://www.wto
.org/english/tratop e/sps e/spsagr e.htm).
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Summary of the Dispute: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop e/dispu e/cases e/ds293 e
.htm.
