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- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- 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 - who decides what we eat?14 May 2003
Friends of the Earth urged the European Union to staunchly defend the public's right to exercise choice over GM food, following the announcement that the United States has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over Europe's de-facto moratorium. And if the UK Government does not strongly defend the European Union case, it will render the UK's own public debate on the future of the GM food meaningless.
The process for dealing with WTO disputes is complex and slow but a consultation period will stretch over the summer, with Europe not due to make its first written submission until November, leaving the dispute hanging not only over the UK's public consultation, but also the WTO Ministerial in Cancun, Mexico, scheduled to take place in September. And the secretive nature of the WTO dispute resolution process will mean that public concerns will not be voiced and cannot even be considered.
If the US is successful, the dispute panel ruling is binding and the EU will be forced to either alter its policy toward GM crops or face economic sanctions across a range of sectors. Friends of the Earth is concerned that the US action, almost certainly a result of pressure from the biotech industry, could remove the public's right to choose on GM food.
"The Bush White House and American business interests should not have the right to make decisions about what people in Europe get to eat," said Friends of the Earth Policy and Campaigns Director, Liana Stupples. "But the current WTO system means that this could be the case. The British Government and the European Union must act to defend our right to eat what we choose.
"The British public do not want GM food and they have made this clear time and time again. The United States has become the bully in the world playground, forcing through the big business agenda at the expense of democracy and people power. This action against the EU could be just the first assault on consumer rights."
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