No decision yet on US biotech case against EU - aide
Date: 07-Feb-03
Country: USA
The trade dispute comes at an especially delicate moment in U.S.-European relations, when Washington is soliciting support from European nations for a potential military strike against Iraq.
On Monday, a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss a possible U.S. trade action was called off. Since then, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has met with four European farm and trade officials to stress U.S. impatience for EU action on biotech foods.
However, one USDA official played down the significance of the postponed meeting.
"It's a National Security Council decision," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our patience is running out. A decision hasn't been made yet on how to proceed."
In recent weeks, U.S. agriculture industry officials and some members of Congress have expressed impatience, not with the EU, but with the Bush administration for being able to make a decision on whether to file a WTO complaint against the EU.
Four years ago, the EU imposed a ban on approval of genetically modified products because of concerns about their long-term impacts on human health and the environment. The U.S. government says gene-spliced crops pose no new risks.
U.S. farm groups and farm state lawmakers have urged the Bush administration to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization, saying American growers are losing about $300 million in annual sales to the EU because of the biotech moratorium.
EU Farm Minister Franz Fischler said Tuesday that Veneman and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick were "in a kind of decision-making process" and assessing the likely impacts of a challenge. They gave no indication when the United States would act, he said.
A U.S. challenge might arouse a consumer backlash in Europe and disrupt a European Parliament review of new biotech rules, Fischler told reporters.
Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Annemie Neyts-Uytterbroeck told Reuters that U.S. companies have been encouraged to start filing applications with the EU to bring new biotech products into Europe. Three applications are already pending for consideration under the new EU review system.
A related trade tension is brewing over the EU's planned requirements for special labels on genetically modified foods and documentation to trace back the source of a food.
