U.S. Gives the EU Additional Time to Comply with WTO Recommendations/Rulings in Biotech Dispute
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a statement in response to the European Union's failure to comply with World Trade Organization rulings and recommendations in the U.S.' case against the EU's treatment of agriculture biotechnology (biotech) products.
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The USTR states that the U.S. and EU have agreed to suspend for a limited time the WTO proceedings in the U.S.' request for authority to impose trade sanctions in the biotech dispute in order to provide the EU with an opportunity to demonstrate meaningful progress on the approval of biotech products.
U.S. will continue to evaluate EU progress toward compliance. The USTR states that during the coming months, the U.S. will periodically evaluate the EU's progress toward normalizing trade in biotech products against a set of benchmarks and timelines.
If the U.S. decides to pursue WTO proceedings on the EU's compliance, it would file a formal consultation request with the EU, followed by a request for the establishment of a WTO compliance panel.
U.S. also expresses concern about recent ban imposed by France. The USTR statement also expresses concern with France's January 11, 2008 announcement of a ban on the planting of the only biotech corn variety currently cultivated in the EU. The USTR notes that the WTO previously found a similar ban imposed by Austria to be unsupported by scientific evidence and inconsistent with WTO rules.
The USTR states that the U.S. expects the EU to promptly lift this ban, and expressed hope that France would reconsider its action.
Background on the U.S.-EU biotech dispute. In 2003, the U.S. filed a WTO case against the EU over its five-year moratorium on approving agricultural biotechnology (biotech) products. (Argentina and Canada also brought WTO cases against the EU.) The WTO found that the EU's measures were in breach of its obligations under the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
On November 21, 2006, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) adopted recommendations and rulings calling on the EU to bring its measures into compliance with its WTO obligations. The U.S. and EU initially agreed on a one-year "reasonable period of time" (RPT) for the EU to comply with the WTO recommendations and rulings. The initial RPT ended on November 21, 2007, but was subsequently extended until January 11, 2008.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/16/04 news, 04031635, for BP summary on the USTR's request for comments on the institution of the U.S.' WTO dispute.
See ITT's Online Archives or 10/06/06 news, 06100699 3, for BP summary on the WTO's ruling in favor of the U.S. in the biotech dispute.)
USTR statement (dated 01/14/08) available at http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2008/January/Statement_on_EC-Biotech_Dispute.html.