New York--The United States criticized Friday the new European Union plan to allow member states to block genetically modified imports, following a new round of talks on the transatlantic free-trade pact.
"It is hard to square this proposal with either EU long-standing internal obligations or their aspiration for a seamless internal market," said Dan Mullaney, the assistant US trade representative for Europe and the Middle East.
"We are still studying the proposal implications but we hope that the EU will move forward in a way that respects our decades-old rules on trade," he added.
Mullaney was speaking at a news conference following the ninth round of US-EU negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership held this week in New York.
His remarks echoed US Trade Representative Michael Froman, who said the US was "very disappointed" by Wednesday's EU proposal to allow the 28 member states to individually decide whether to allow the import of genetically modified organisms or food, animal feed and other products made with them.
Under current rules, if a GMO is judged safe for human consumption by the European Food Safety Agency, then the Commission must agree that it can be grown or imported without restriction in the EU. The new proposal would allow individual states to decide to block them using reasoning unrelated to risks to human and animal health and the environment.
On Friday, the Commission cleared 19 new GMO products for use in the EU, 11 of them from US agriculture giant Monsanto, including genetically modified varieties of soybeans, maize, rapeseed and cotton.
He said the 10th round of TTIP negotiations would be held in the coming months in Brussels and, in the meantime, negotiators would examine the two parties' revised offers.
Among the subjects discussed in the New York meeting were fisheries and illegal fishing, other issues linked to the environment and technical barriers to trade, Mullaney said.
AFP
