World Trade Organisation GM dispute

Friends of the Earth has today published a leaked copy of the secret draft ruling in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute over GM foods.

The US, Canada and Argentina launched a legal challenge against the EU in May 2003. They claimed that Europe's reluctance to embrace GM foods damaged their farmers and was a barrier to trade.

Initial analysis of the report shows that despite claims of victory by the US government and the biotechnology industry, the US-led coalition failed to win many of their arguments against Europe.

However, the WTO ruled that national GM bans are illegal and it is likely that countries with bans in place will be put under renewed pressure to lift them.

Friends of the Earth has published a preliminary analysis of the report in the briefing Looking behind the US spin - WTO ruling does not prevent countries from restricting or banning GMOs (PDF).

Read the report

The leaked report can be downloaded here:

World Trade Organisation: European Communities - Measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products. Interim Reports of the Panel.

Descriptive (pages 1-148)
(PDF† format - 1.6MB)
Findings (pages 249-1050)
(PDF† format - 4.2MB)

Press for change

Urge the UK Government to stand up to attempts by the US and biotech companies to force feed us GM food.

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