archives: WTO InfoGerman Minister Calls on EU To Drop Biotech Product Ban
International Environment Daily
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
ISSN 1535-0274
Lead ReportBiotechnology
German Minister Calls on EU To Drop Biotech Product Ban
The European Union should end its moratorium on approving new genetically modified products in order to reduce trans-Atlantic trade tensions, a German official said May 20. Speaking at the German- American Executive Summit, a business conference co-hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Germany's Minister of Economic Affairs and Labor Wolfgang Clement also said that the United States should comply with several adverse World Trade Organization rulings, including the 2002 decision striking down U.S. export tax rules.
The United States and Europe "bear a special responsibility" to promote world trade and ensure that the current Doha Round of WTO trade talks are successful, Clement said.
"An effective reduction in the number of trans-Atlantic conflicts would make this task easier for both sides, and would herald a new phase of constructive relations," he said.
"I am therefore arguing vigorously for Europe to end its de facto moratorium on genetically modified products," he added.
The United States instituted WTO dispute settlement proceedings May 13 against the EU's ban, which began in 1998 and has cost U.S. corn exporters approximately $300 million per year.
Germany, however, is not among the seven member states that have led opposition in the EU towards genetically modified (GM) products. Those countries are: France, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium, and Austria.
Germany Will Push on CAP Reform
Regarding the current round of WTO talks, which appears stalled as several interim deadlines have been missed, Clement said that Germany will push the EU to move forward on reforms of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Many observers, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, have said that CAP reform is necessary for EU trade negotiators to have sufficient flexibility to make progress in WTO agriculture trade talks. Zoellick, who spoke at the summit after Clement, said that the WTO farm trade talks were "stuck."
Clement also said that he would work "to make sure that the EU makes a clear move towards the position of our negotiating partners, particularly on export subsidies and production-related aid." The United States has urged that agriculture export subsidies be eliminated during the Doha Round. The EU is one of the largest users of such subsidies.
Zoellick Lukewarm Towards Goods Text
Meanwhile, in his remarks at the German-American Executive Summit and in subsequent comments to reporters, Zoellick offered lukewarm praise for a May 16 draft paper introduced at the WTO on a framework for manufactured goods trade negotiations. Zoellick said that the proposed framework, or modalities, for the talks "basically follows" the structure that he and the EU's Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, set out in late April at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Yet while he was "pleased" with the structure, Zoellick added that the proposal is "frankly not as ambitious as we would like, but I think it shows the possibility of movement." He did not elaborate, and later told reporters that he is still studying the proposal.
The draft, which was introduced by Pierre-Louis Girard, the chair of the WTO's negotiating group on market access for nonagricultural goods, calls for sectoral tariff eliminations, as did Lamy and Zoellick, but did not call for the elimination of all duties on manufactured goods by a date certain, as the United States has proposed.
By Christopher S. Rugaber
Copyright © 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.
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