Administration attacked for failing to file WTO case Associated Press Published March 6, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two key senators on trade issues attacked the Bush administration Wednesday for not bringing a case against Europe's ban on imports of genetically modified food, saying the decision was costing farmers millions of dollars in lost sales of corn, soybeans and other crops. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the committee's top Democrat, told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick that they could not understand the administration's delay in bringing a case before the World Trade Organization given the economic pain for farmers. Saying he was "profoundly disappointed" in the delay, Grassley said the E.U.'s four-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified food was costing U.S. farmers $300 million annually in lost sales and hurting companies that had spent the money to develop the genetically modified crops, which have been used extensively in the United States to grow more disease-resistant corn, soybeans and other crops. "E.U. policies also create a chilling effect on the approval and sale of biotech products around the world, especially in developing countries that fear that if they start using biotech crops, they'll lose the ability to sell in the European market," Grassley said. He said the decision of countries in Africa not to use genetically modified seed that has been proven to boost crop yields dramatically was contributing to the starvation of tens of thousands of people on that continent, a fact that he said "doesn't seem to matter to anyone in Europe." While Zoellick in January called the E.U. ban "immoral" for the same reason that it was influencing African countries to the detriment of their citizens, the administration has delayed for weeks a Cabinet-level meeting where Zoellick had expected to receive the go-ahead for filing a case.
