EU obtains further delay in WTO dispute

(January 14, 2008) The European Union has gained additional time in its WTO trade dispute with Argentina, Canada and the United States on the authorisation of biotech products. For the time being, the three successful complainants will abstain from imposing punitive tariffs on EU goods.

The spokeswoman of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Gretchen Hamel, yesterday announced an agreement with the EU to suspend the WTO dispute for a limited period. Without giving an exact date, Hamel stated that "…during the coming months, the United States will periodically evaluate EU progress toward normalizing trade against a set of benchmarks and timelines." Canada has extended by a month to February 11th the deadline for the EU to comply with the WTO ruling and Argentina has announced a ceasefire until June.

In this context, a speaker for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the press that a steering group of biotech experts within the European Commission will meet on the 24th of January. The cabinet members will have to tackle a number of issues. Not only did deadlines for lifting unsubstantiated national bans by Austria and Poland expire several days ago without any reaction, but last week France placed a new ban on the cultivation of the genetically modified maize MON810 although this product has held EU approval since 1998. On top of that, several new biotech products currently are waiting for their approval while Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas recently questioned the EU authorisation process at large.

In May 2003, Argentina, Canada and the United States already had brought their case to the World Trade Organisation on the EU's moratorium on approving agricultural biotechnology products. Three-and-a-half years later, a WTO panel report found that the EU breached its obligations under the international Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. A Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) called upon the European Union to bring its biotechnology policy into compliance with WTO obligations. The time line for compliance initially was set to end on November 21st, 2006, but was extended until January 11th, 2007. USTR spokeswoman Hamel emphasised that the United States remains very concerned about the treatment of agricultural biotech products by the EU. "The patience of US stakeholders is close to exhaustion," she said and continued that "it is hard to overstate our disappointment" with the new ban announced by the French government. Hamel asked the European Commission to move promptly to lift the unjustified ban.

Further information:

• USTR statement on the WTO trade dispute
• WTO summary of dispute case ds291