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- GM trade war accelerates
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
GM trade war accelerates20 June 2003
The decision of the Bush US administration to go for a full blown WTO dispute settlement case against the EU's de facto GM moratorium was condemned by Friends of the Earth. Consultations between the EU, US and Argentina were held behind closed doors at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva yesterday. Immediately following the talks, the US announced that the consultation with the European Commission had failed. The US will now move forward with requesting a panel.
The decision means the US will now aim to obtain a ruling by the powerful and undemocratic World Trade Organisation forcing the EU to lift its de facto moratorium on genetically modified crops. If Europe fails to lift the moratorium, the WTO could also grant the US the right to impose several hundred million dollars in trade sanctions on EU products.
The EU has so far stood firm arguing for the "need for a rigorous regulatory framework" based on environmental, health, animal welfare and ethical grounds, stating that "the EU will always aim at responding to the legitimate interests of its citizens, not to narrow economic interests".
The escalation of the dispute comes ahead of the EU-US summit next week, originally intended to solve, rather than increase, transatlantic tensions. Governments are also in the midst of preparing a joint agenda for the next WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in September in Mexico.
"The US decision to attack the right of countries to regulate the trade in GM is bully-boy undemocratic behaviour," said Friends of the Earth GM Campaigner, Pete Riley. "The corporate-led US administration wants to force feed GM food to Europe and the rest of the world. The WTO is not the right place to decide what people should eat. Environmentalists, farmers and consumers around the world will resist the Bush administration and the WTO."
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