The World Trade Organization has produced a long-awaited provisional decision on the trade dispute between the EU and the US, Canada and Argentina on the moratorium for the approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the EU and the ban by several EU states on specific biotech products.

This provisional decision, which will be circulated to parties to the dispute, addresses three main issues. Firstly, it confirms that a de facto moratorium on GMO-product approvals existed in the EC between 1998 and 2003, resulting in a failure to complete individual approval procedures without undue delay, as required by the SPS Agreement (Article 8 and Annex C). Secondly, the decision concludes that this moratorium resulted in undue delays in the approval procedures of 24 biotech products. Thirdly, it establishes that countries which banned specific products that were previously approved for use within the EC did not provide sufficient scientific evidence to justify risks to human health and/or the environment, thus failing to meet obligations under the SPS Agreement.
Pursuant to these findings, the Panel requests the EC to bring the relevant measures in conformity with its obligations under the SPS Agreement, although it recognizes the end of the de facto moratorium with the approval of Bt-11 sweet maize in 2004, and thus makes no recommendations on its first point.
Links to further information
Provisional WTO Panel decision, February 2006
Development of the EU biotech case, Trade & Environment.org website, February 2006
ICTSD Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest coverage, 8 February 2006