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- Farm Bureau Hails Bush Fight on Biotech
The American Farm Bureau Federation applauded the Bush administration’s decision to pursue a case in the World Trade Organization against the European Union’s (EU) five-year-old moratorium on new approvals of biotech crops.
“The administration’s decision to pursue formal dispute settlement proceedings under the WTO sends a strong message to farmers that the U.S. government will fight for agriculture’s trading rights,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman.
“We are particularly grateful to Ambassador (U.S. Trade Representative Robert) Zoellick and Chief Agricultural Negotiator Allen Johnson for putting together this strong case,” Stallman added.
“We believe that a WTO decision, which most experts expect to be in favor of the United States, is the only reasonable remedy available to U.S. growers - to either lift the moratorium or impose retaliatory tariffs on EU products imported into the United States,” Stallman asserted.
The EU’s “ongoing and illegal” moratorium, noted Stallman, has resulted in lost export markets for U.S. producers and exporters, a slowdown in the adoption of new technologies in the United States and other countries.
The EU has proposed the use of labeling and traceability rules to replace the moratorium, a move that Stallman said is also inconsistent with WTO rules. “As proposed, the labeling and traceability rules only make the problem worse by erecting new, unscientific barriers to processed food products in addition to agricultural commodities,” he said.
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