The US said Thursday it would launch a formal WTO challenge to an alleged European ban on bio-engineered foods.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said they would fight the European policy by asking the WTO to set up a dispute settlement panel.
The main US allies in the row -- Canada and Argentina -- also were requesting WTO panels, they said.
"Delegations from the US, Canada and Argentina consulted in June with EU officials, but the EU indicated no willingness to comply with its WTO obligations by lifting the groundless moratorium on biotech products," Zoellick said.
"The EU's stance leaves us no choice but to proceed with the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel," he added.
`Harmful' action
"For five years, the EU has kept in place a ban on biotech approvals, a ban which is unsupported even by the EU's own scientific studies," Zoellick said.
"This trade barrier harms farmers and consumers around the world by denying them the benefits of productive, nutritious and environmentally friendly biotech products," he said.
The WTO dispute settlement panel, a type of international court for trade spats, can be set up at the request of a country after a 60-day consultation period between opposing sides.
That period has expired in the US-EU case.
Formal request
The US, Canada and Argentina launched the WTO case in May by requesting formal consultations with Europe.
During the consultation period, the European Commission said it had the right to decide for itself how to regulate so-called genetically modified organisms, which include crops such as corn and soybeans.
The EU last month agreed to two new directives on biotechnology foods, which it said would open the way to lifting a de facto moratorium on biotechnology food imports.
Proper labels
One directive required that foods and animal feed be labeled if they contain at least 0.9 percent of genetically modified ingredients; and the other required that the foods' origin can be traced.
But the US administration said the new labeling rules made no difference to its case.
"Since neither one of these new regulations lifts the illegal moratorium on biotech products, they do not affect the US WTO challenge," the US administration statement said.
Other countries supporting the US side as third parties are Australia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru.
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