Feed Organizations Urge Swift Action on EU Approval for US Biotech Exports
Nearly 20 U.S. agricultural organizations in recent days urged U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and European Union consumer policy official Tonio Borg to pressure EU approval for U.S. biotechnology product exports. There are currently nine food and feed products that…
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the European Food Safety Authority reviewed positively, but no new authorizations have been issued since November 2013, said the organizations in an Aug. 20 letter to Borg. The failure to authorize the products at EU meetings in September will lead to feed shortages and price increases, said the letter, adding that “timely regulatory decisions on new biotechnology applications” are mandated through World Trade Organization obligations. U.S. trade officials and advocates have long pressed for more biotech access to the European market (see 13071622). The food and feed organizations in another Aug. 20 letter to Froman said the regulatory slog violates WTO trade rules. If the EU does not act during its September meeting, the organizations urged Froman “to explore all options, including initiating a process to convene a WTO compliance panel,” said the letter. "Any further delay in approval will give rise to the realistic concern that the European Union has reinstituted a de facto moratorium on new agricultural biotechnologies.”