GMO UPDATE: WTO BIOTECH CASE, ISAAA, EU, APEC

WTO Biotech Case Panel Report Delayed Again

The Chair of the WTO dispute panel considering the case brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against the alleged EU moratorium on the approval of new biotech products announced on 3 January that the panel would not distribute its interim preliminary report to the parties to the dispute before early February 2006. The report had been expected on 5 January. Some trade sources speculated that this, the most recent in a series of delays in the delivery of the report (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 14 October 2005), could simply be a result of delays in the legal translation of the hundreds of pages of complex analysis because of the more immediate demands placed on WTO staff by the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.

In a 21 December 2005 letter to the parties (WT/DS291/30, available online at http://docsonline.wto.org), Panel Chair Christian Haeberli (Switzerland) said that the final panel would not be available before the end of March 2006. Unlike the interim report, which is circulated only to the parties for comment, this final report -- which has been delayed four times already -- will be publicly available and will take into account parties' views on the preliminary report. The letter repeated some of the justifications for previous delays, such as the large number of issues to be addressed by the panel, adding that "since much more time and effort was required for this case than originally planned for, some of the Secretariat staff is no longer available to the Panel."

Until recently, interim reports in WTO disputes were eagerly anticipated, since they largely matched the eventual final ruling. The significance of these reports as a barometer of the panel's eventual decision has been diminished by Korea and Indonesia's dispute over anti-dumping duties on certain Indonesian paper imports, where the final ruling differed substantially from the interim report. Nevertheless, the parties are eagerly awaiting the release of the interim report, as are the biotechnology industry and civil society. Owing to the extensive commenting, translation and appeal process that is likely to ensue, however, the final word on the dispute, which was launched in May 2003, is not likely to be conclusively delivered for some time.

ISAAA Report: Developing-Country Biotech Plantings Continue To Expand

The latest annual report of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) indicates that the global area planted with genetically modified (GM) crops continued to grow in 2005. In total, 90 million hectares (222 million acres) of GM crops were grown in 2005, amounting to an eleven percent increase since 2004. Although the ISAAA pointed to these numbers as signs of the ongoing growth in adoption of GM technologies, some pointed to the fact that the rate of growth in 2005 was lower than the 20 percent growth seen the year before.

GM crops were grown by approximately 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries, including (in order of hectage) the US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Paraguay, India, South Africa, Uruguay, Australia, Mexico, Romania, the Philippines, Spain, Colombia, Iran, Honduras, Portugal, Germany, France and the Czech Republic. The top five countries planting of GM crops accounted for 94 percent of global GM area, with the US planting 55 percent, Argentina 19 percent, Brazil ten percent, Canada seven percent and China three percent. The report confirms that soybean, maize, cotton and canola continue to be the four main commercialised crops and the two main biotechnology traits continue to be herbicide tolerance (71 percent) and insect resistance (18 percent), although crops with multiple traits, from "stacked" genes, are becoming more popular.

The area of land dedicated to planting GM crops expanded in developing countries by 23 percent over the last year, marking a rate of growth higher than that of developed countries. Since adopting a new legal framework for the approval of GM crops, thereby legalising and supporting GM soy production, Brazil almost doubled the coverage of GM crops nationally from five million hectares to 9.4 million. Similarly, India had almost a three-fold increase from 500,000 hectares in 2004 to 1.3 million hectares planted to GM crops in 2005. The ISAAA report indicates that of the four new countries that grew biotech crops in 2005, compared with 2004, three were EU countries - namely Portugal, France and the Czech Republic - whilst Iran as the fourth country planted GM rice for the first time on a commercial basis. The planting of Bt maize in the three EU countries brings the total number of EU countries now commercialising modest areas of Bt maize to five, including Spain and Germany.

EU approves three new GMOs

Three GM maize varieties were approved by the European Commission on 13 January, bringing the total number of GM products approved since the new European traceability and labelling regulations entered into force in April 2004 to nine. The first two varieties, known as GA21 and MON 863, have been approved for use as food and food ingredients, while MON 863x810 has been approved for use for industrial processing and animal feed. All three varieties have "stacked" genes that are both pest-resistant and herbicide-tolerant, and have been approved by the European Food Safety Agency. The Commission decision came after EU member states in the Council of Ministers were not able to reach a qualified majority either in favour of or against approval of the varieties. Although the right of the Commission to approve a variety when member states are unable to decide is stipulated by EU legislation, Friends of the Earth described it as an "undemocratic" system.

On 10 January the European Commission ordered Greece to end its ban on GM maize varieties that have been approved in the EU. Under articles 18 and 23(3) of the European Council Directive 2002/53/EC, EU member countries can notify the Commission of their intention to not adopt EU-wide GM crop approvals using the national safeguard clause allowing countries to prevent commercialisation they believe to be harmful from the point of view of plant health, or if they feel the variety presents a risk for the environment or for human health. Greece did exactly that in April 2005 when it notified the Commission of its ban on the 17 maize seed types for the 2005 and 2006 growing seasons. After the EU Council of Ministers in October 2005 failed to reach a consensus on whether to request Greece to repeal its bans, however, the decision reverted to the Commission. Should Greece disagree with the decision, it could choose to appeal the move at the European Court of Justice. The ban, and others like it across the EU, is one of the key issues in the current EU-biotech dispute at the WTO (see above).

APEC conference prepares for high-level dialogue

Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting on 16-18 January for a Conference on Bio-safety Policy Options for APEC Economies agreed that APEC should continue to work on harmonisation of regulations on GM crops to ensure human and environmental protection as well as food security in the region. Participants noted the need for the harmonisation process to enable policy-makers to take "responsible" and careful importing decisions while respecting the point of view of exporters of GMOs. The participants also agreed on the need to carefully weigh trade impacts on both importing and exporting countries and impacts on research and technology development investments in coming up with biosafety regulations, noting that imposing such regulation may entail costs that might exceed the benefits offered by genetically modified crops.

The message from the meeting, held in Makati City, the Philippines, will be transmitted to the APEC High-Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology, which will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 25 to 27 February. The Hanoi meeting is expected to focus on the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in the region and biotechnology policy development, implementation and communication.

Additional Resources

For more information on the WTO biotech dispute, see http://www.trade-environment.org/page/theme/tewto/biotechcase.htm

The ISAAA report is available at http://www.isaaa.org/kc/

ICTSD reporting; "WTO again delays ruling in row over EU GMO policy," REUTERS, 4 January 2006; "EU Tells Greece to Lift Ban on Monsanto Maize Seeds," RETUERS, 11 January 2006; " EC Approves Three GMO Corn Products After Member States Again Fail to Concur," WTO REPORTER, 17 January 2006; "Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2005," ISAAA Brief 34, 11 January 2006; "APEC gears up for next policy dialogue," Mindanao Daily Mirror, 20 January 2006; " APEC to Continue Rationalizing Biotechnology Regulations," ASIA PULSE, 19 January 2006.