A World Trade Organization panel report last week criticizing a de facto European Union moratorium on imports of genetically modified products was hailed by the Canadian biotechnology industry as a breakthrough.
And a canola industry official predicted that within a year, Canadian GM canola would once again be able to enter the EU market.
The ruling, still confidential but leaked by European environmental groups that condemned it, was in response to a 2003 complaint filed by Canada, the United States and Argentina.
“From our perspective, this is a real turning point,” said Denise Dewar of CropLife Canada.
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“It is a great day for science and innovation. I think it is a strong signal to the world that products must be judged on science and not politics and so even if this does not open the European market immediately, it is a strong message to the world.”
CropLife Canada represents Canadian companies that develop GM products and varieties.
At the Canola Council of Canada, vice-president JoAnne Buth said the panel decision does not necessarily mean a quick reopening of the European market, which has not imported Canadian canola since 1995-96.
“We have not seen it (the report) but my understanding is it is an interim report, it can be changed and it can be appealed so we have to be cautious,” she said.
“But it is an important message that WTO believes rules should be science based and we know our product will meet that test.”
However, she said that whatever impact the ruling has on EU policy, it does appear to be opening up the approval process and edging toward beginning to accept GM food as long as it is labelled.
“I believe that within a year and maybe even eight months, we will have full access to the European market,” Buth said. “They are beginning to move.”
However, she also cautioned that nervous European politicians could intervene as they have in the past to slow the process.
Even as the biotechnology industry celebrated, environmentalist opponents condemned the ruling.
“This WTO ruling is a pyrrhic victory for the genetic engineering industry,” Greenpeace international trade adviser Daniel Mittler said in a statement issued in Montreal and Brussels.
“It will simply further increase consumer suspicion and rejection of GE food. Most of the public, farmers and a growing number of governments are opposed to GE.”
In Canada, Greenpeace activist Eric Darier said the new Conservative government should “move away from the Liberals’ policy promoting GE food.”
In opposition, the Conservatives were promoters of biotechnology, new variety development and a regulatory system based on science.
In essence, the WTO panel ruled that despite European claims to the contrary, there has been an effective EU moratorium on GM food imports since 1998.
The rules and the precautionary principle have made sure no GM varieties were registered.
WTO rules say that products must be judged on a scientific basis, rather than a public fear of the product. Greenpeace said that amounts to a WTO policy of “force feeding” GM products to people who do not want them.
Buth said it is impossible to estimate how much of a market Europe might offer for Canadian canola.
“It was never a steady market like Japan but an in and out market,” she said.
“But with a three million tonne carryover, every new opportunity is important.”
