Talks Collapse on U.S. Efforts to Open Europe to Biotech Food

[Andrew Gach]

The New York Times, June 20, 2003
Talks Collapse on U.S. Efforts to Open Europe to Biotech Food
By DAVID LEONHARDT


WASHINGTON, June 19 - Talks between the United States and the European Union
over opening up Europe to genetically modified foods broke down in Geneva
today, the Bush administration announced, heightening trans-Atlantic
tensions.

American officials said they would soon request that the World Trade
Organization convene a panel to hear their case, in an effort to end a ban
that farm groups say is depriving agricultural businesses of hundreds of
billions of dollars a year.

The Bush administration called Europe's policy illegal, saying that
scientific research had shown genetically altered crops to be safe. The
European Union "denies choices to European consumers," Richard Mills, a
spokesman for the United States trade representative, Robert Zoellick, said
in a statement today.

European officials said the long-term effects of altered food remained
uncertain. They said they were disappointed by the administration's
publicizing of the dispute.

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