Brussels, 17/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following half a dozen requests made in the last month by a coalition headed by the United States, consultations on the European moratorium on imports of transgenic products will open on Thursday in Geneva. This procedure, a mandatory step before multilateral arbitration, aims to support the amicable settlement of trade disputes, and will end after the compulsory period of sixty days. The first in a series of meetings scheduled for the coming weeks will bring together representatives of the Union and just two of the requesting parties, which produce and export GMOs, i.e. the United States and Argentina, and which "Canada chose not to join. It will go to Geneva next week", said a source in Brussels on Tuesday.