U.S. farmers urge sanctions against EU’s GM crop ban | Reuters
In this item Reuters reveal that the largest U.S. farm group has urged the Obama administration to begin steps towards imposing sanctions on the European Union in a longrunning dispute over the EU’s treatment of genetically modified crops.
It says that he American Farm Bureau Federation, in comments given to the administration on Monday, complained the EU still has not complied with a 2006 World Trade Organization ruling against its “de facto” moratorium on approving new varieties of biotech crops for sale in the 27-nation bloc.
“The inability of the EU to operate a timely and predictable regulatory process ended U.S. corn exports (to the EU) in 1998 and has reduced corn byproducts substantially,” the Farm Bureau said in its recommendations for President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative.
“If the EU does not immediately begin to make timely, science-based regulatory decisions on pending and future applications, soybean exports also are at serious risk,” the farm group said.
“USTR should initiate a retaliation proceeding against the EU to force compliance with the WTO ruling on GMOs (genetically-modified organisms),” the group said.
