News & Events

Ambassador Bruton must deal with issue of GM foods immediately

09 September 2004

The EU recently authorised a GM sweetcorn for human consumption, thereby lifting a de facto moratorium on the authorisation on new GM food products that had been in place since 1999.

"The issue of GM foods continues to be a major issue of division between the EU and the USA. Many commentators have stated that one of John Bruton's first tasks as EU Ambassador in Washington DC will be to improve EU-US political relations in the wake of the Iraqi War, yet the issue of GM foods is equally important as it has the potential to precipitate a major EU-US Trade War if not dealt with expeditiously" stated Raymond O' Rourke, Food & Life Sciences Lawyer, Mason Hayes & Curran, Solicitors, Dublin.

The EU recently authorised a GM sweetcorn for human consumption, thereby lifting a de facto moratorium on the authorisation on new GM food products that had been in place since 1999. The moratorium had been vehemently criticised by the USA and had resulted in them taking a WTO case against the EU on the issue of the moratorium and EU labelling/traceability rules for GM products. The WTO ruling on this case is anticipated to be ready by next January.

"Since the EU has lifted the moratorium, I believe that the EU should be persuading the USA to suspend their WTO case against the EU over GM foods and that would be one of the first tasks of Ambassador Bruton when he arrives in Washington DC in November." stated O' Rourke.

The remaining issue of contention between the EU and US is on the question of the labelling of GM products - in Europe in the wake of the BSE/Dioxin crisis and with continued opposition by consumers to GM foods, regulators believe that it is of paramount importance that consumers are given the choice via labelling whether to purchase GM foods or not.

"The US Government states that the labelling of GM foods is unnecessary, the EU thinks differently. Ambassador Bruton must persuade the US Administration that the labelling of GM foods is simply for consumer protection reasons and is not a trade restrictive measure. This issue needs to be dealt with immediately or else the fallout will cause a major deterioration in EU-US trade relations, which will ultimately be detrimental to Ireland's national interests. " concluded O' Rourke.