Continuity and change in the EU regulatory framework on GMOs after the WTO dispute on biotech products

Abstract

This article assesses to what extent the EU regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has changed after the release of the Panel’s decision on the biotech dispute and the impact that the Community’s way of implementing the biotech reports has on the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). The author contends that currently in the EU regulatory framework on GMOs there are both elements of change and continuity with respect to the situation pre-dating the World Trade Organization (WTO) biotech dispute. She further argues that in implementing the biotech reports the EU may have weakened the function of the SPS Agreement as a sword against trade restrictive measures, which are not supported by scientific evidence. Yet, if we take the view that the SPS Agreement should be intended to bite only vis-à-vis purely protectionist measures, the EU’s handling of the biotech dispute does not really defeat this purpose of the SPS Agreement.