The Wall Street Journal-20080115-U-S- Vows Sanctions on EU Over Modified-Crop Bans
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U.S. Vows Sanctions on EU Over Modified-Crop Bans
BRUSSELS -- The U.S. said it will pursue trade sanctions unless European Union countries reverse bans on planting genetically modified crops, extending a long-running, trans-Atlantic dispute over engineered foods.
The threat came two days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would join a handful of EU countries in banning permanently the only genetically modified crop the EU has licensed for cultivation -- Monsanto Co.'s MON810, a corn used for animal feed.
That followed Austria's failure to meet a Friday deadline to lift its ban on MON810. The U.S. won a lawsuit two years ago at the World Trade Organization over the country's refusal to allow cultivation of the corn.
France is the second-biggest user of MON810 in Europe and the EU's agriculture powerhouse. Its decision to ban the corn would be a significant defeat for U.S. biotech companies, already struggling to get a piece of the EU's $7 billion seed market.
"We are taking steps necessary under World Trade Organization rules to preserve our right in the WTO to suspend trade concessions," said Gretchen Hamel, a U.S. trade office spokeswoman. "It is hard to overstate our disappointment with this new biotech ban announced by the government of France."
Under WTO rules, a country can prohibit a product only for safety reasons, but the EU's own food-safety watchdog has said MON810 isn't dangerous to human health.
U.S. retaliation could the take the form of punitive trade tariffs on popular goods from Austria, such as the soft drink Red Bull, produced by Red Bull GmbH. Now that France has joined the ban, the U.S. could extend its trade sanctions to French wines or other sensitive goods. The U.S. also could ask the EU to lower some of its tariffs on U.S. goods in specific markets, as compensation.
"There are no grounds whatsoever" for France to ban MON810, said Jonathan Ramsay, a lobbyist for Monsanto in Brussels. Monsanto will explore "all legal remedies," he added.Many French farmers say they need the corn to cut their pesticide bills. MON810 generates a protein that kills the European corn borer, which destroys corn crops. The EU's executive body, the European Commission, said it will challenge the French ban.
