US threatens legal action against Europe’s GM ban

By: Katie Mantell

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>US threatens legal action against Europe’s GM ban</h1>
<h4>By: Katie Mantell</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>The US government’s top trade official has threatened to take the European Union to court for its ban on new genetically modified (GM) crops, calling the European position “immoral” for leading to starvation in the developing world.<BR><BR>Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, said last week that he had lost patience with Europe’s four-year ban on the approval of new GM crops when African nations refused to accept US donations of maize because it contained GM material.<BR><BR>“I find it immoral that people are not being supplied with food to live in Africa because people have invented dangers about biotechnology,” the UK newspaper <em>The Guardian</em> reports Zoellick as saying. He added that it was “extremely disturbing” that the “European anti-scientific policies are spreading to other corners of the world”.<BR><BR>The White House is expected to decide whether to bring a case to the World Trade Organisation on this issue by the end of January.<BR><BR><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,872088,00.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to <em>Guardian</em> article</A> <BR><BR>© SciDev.Net 2003</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/us-threatens-legal-action-against-europes-gm-ban/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/us-threatens-legal-action-against-europes-gm-ban/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

The US government’s top trade official has threatened to take the European Union to court for its ban on new genetically modified (GM) crops, calling the European position “immoral” for leading to starvation in the developing world.

Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, said last week that he had lost patience with Europe’s four-year ban on the approval of new GM crops when African nations refused to accept US donations of maize because it contained GM material.

“I find it immoral that people are not being supplied with food to live in Africa because people have invented dangers about biotechnology,” the UK newspaper The Guardian reports Zoellick as saying. He added that it was “extremely disturbing” that the “European anti-scientific policies are spreading to other corners of the world”.

The White House is expected to decide whether to bring a case to the World Trade Organisation on this issue by the end of January.

Link to Guardian article

© SciDev.Net 2003