WTO ruling disregards "Precautionary Principle," argues the ITSSD

In a Legal Backgrounder released by the USA-based Washington Legal Foundation, entitled, WTO Ruling on Biotech Foods Addresses "Precautionary Principle," international business and trade expert Lawrence Kogan of the non-profit Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development (ITSSD), argues that the recent World Trade Organization ruling represents a blow to the proponents of the "Precautionary Principle" in Europe and a victory for "best available science" in the regulatory process.

The WLF says that the Precautionary Principle eschews science-based "risk" assessments and an evaluation of the economic benefits and costs of regulation. Instead, it favors the enactment of overly strict and burdensome environmental, health and safety rules based on unfounded activist fears of hypothetical hazards, for the purpose of eliminating every possible future risk from economic conduct, it explains.

The WTO issued its ruling on the complaint by the USA, Argentina, and Canada, on September 29, and much to the chagrin of environmental groups, European Commission accepted it as final, on November 22. As Mr Kogan relates, the WTO panel found that European Union restrictions on approval of genetically-enhanced seeds and food products violated provisions of the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement. The EU's anti-biotechnology policies, the panel found, were based more on political considerations than scientific evidence.