EU-US trade war looms as assembly votes for tougher GM labelling laws

Date: 04/07/02

MEPs have voted for tough new rules on the labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods, bringing the EU a step closer both to renewed regulatory approvals of new biotech crops and to a trade war with the US.

Under the rules adopted in the first-reading vote yesterday (3 July) in the European Parliament, food or animal feed would have to carry a label alerting consumers to the presence of any ingredients containing more than 0.5 GM material.

The vote halved the 1 tolerance threshold proposed by the European Commission to cope with accidental GM contamination.

MEP Jill Evans, of the Greens/EFA political group, hailed the result as a 'great victory for consumers and for the millions of people across the EU who do not want to eat genetically modified food'.

The US and three other countries have already filed objections to the World Trade Organisation over the new rules, which would force their farmers to pay for costly segregation measures to supply EU markets.

Greenpeace said the vote gave the Commission the legitimacy it needed to respond firmly to Washington's objections.

'There's only one thing for the Commission to do and that's to go in there and fight,' said Lorenzo Consoli, spokesman for the organisation.

Adoption of the new rules is a precondition to the resumption of the authorisation procedure for new GM crops, blocked by a French-led hardcore of seven EU states since 1999.

MEPs have voted for tough new rules on the labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods, bringing the EU a step closer both to renewed regulatory approvals of new biotech crops and to a trade war with the US.