Brussels, 24/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - During a meeting of the WTO's committee on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 July, several WTO member countries raised their concerns about the European Commission's proposal to leave the EU member states more freedom to restrict or forbid the use of GMOs in human food and animal feed.
The US believes the draft review of the EU rules on the commercialisation of GMOs, tabled by the Commission on 22 April (see EUROPE 11300), would enable EU member states to restrict or ban the use of GMOs with no justified reasons. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Paraguay and Uruguay expressed similar concerns, asserting that the Commission's draft would create unjustified barriers to trade.
The same countries spoke of their concerns on this issue at the meeting in mid-June of the WTO committee on technical barriers to trade - during which the EU had notified this draft that enables each EU member state to decide to ban a transgenic variety on its territory which has been authorised at European level (see EUROPE 11344).
In response to the concerns raised at the SPS committee, the EU delegation gave assurances that this proposal did not introduce a restriction or ban, but authorised the EU member states to opt out of the EU decision of authorisation if they want, following strict conditions.
The EU also believed that the proposal did not relate to human, animal or vegetable life or health, and did not need to be notified to the SPS committee. (Emmanuel Hagry)