The EU’s agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler said he had told US officials this week that filing a complaint with the WTO about the EU’s GM food policy could backfire.
Fischler said he told US trade representative Robert Zoellick and US agriculture secretary Ann Veneman that a case against the European moratorium on genetically modified foods would only make European officials and consumer activists “make arguments about the risks” and therefore highlight the potential problems of biotechnology.
Fischler urged the US to wait three or four months until a new programme concerning labelling and traceability of GM foods is approved by the European Parliament. Launching a case against the EU, Fischler said, may stop the parliament from giving its approval and put European consumer activists on the alert, reported Congress Daily.
