Council of Ministers and European Commission Inappropriately Use Trade Law as Excuse to Refuse Labelling for food from Clones and their Offspring

Brussels and Washington, D.C. – Today Brussels-based Food & Water Europe and Washington-based Food & Water Watch condemned Council (the EU’s main decision making body) and European Commission attempts to mislead Member States and citizens, as leaked documents reveal their position on cloning is not backed up by the legal opinions they sought.

A recently leaked legal opinion requested by the Council from its official Council Legal Services contradicts Council and Commission claims that banning (or labelling) food from clones and their offspring would risk a trade war between Europe and the U.S. This opinion was available to them at the time conciliation talks broke down in March when the Council rejected the European Parliament’s proposed compromise to relinquish calls for a ban on food from clones and their offspring in exchange for labels showing consumers where clones are used. It was reported on both sides of the Atlantic that the Council and Commission positions maintained such a move would not be compatible with the EU’s international trade obligations and risked a trade war, notably with the US. In Member States like the UK, MPs appear to confirm the spread of misinformation, telling concerned constituents a ban on the import of food from the offspring of clones may well lead to a WTO dispute.

However contrary to this position the leaked legal opinion from Council Legal Services in fact says, “a defendable case may be made on the basis of EC-Asbestos case that food from cloned animals and from their descendents are not ‘like’ product as compared to food from conventionally bred animals,” a key test in trade law.

With regards to labels the legal opinion also says, “The bans of food from cloned animals and of food from offspring of clones could be justified on the basis of the consumers’ ethical considerations,” as could pre-market approvals. “[I]t could reasonably be argued that the general labelling requirement will not sufficiently contribute to the achievement of the public morals objective. In particular, the ethical considerations and the welfare concerns could not be solved by a label.”

Crucially, the legal opinion concludes that even if the argument about the “likeness” of cloned foods was lost, “in relation to food from offspring of cloned animals, a simple labelling requirement for this food would pass the ‘necessity test’ under Article XX GATT” because of the moral and ethical requirements of consumers.

“This document shows that the Council and the Commission inappropriately argued that trade law prevented a ban or labels on food from clones and their offspring, but in reality, the decision appears to be based on a desire to appease the U.S. pro-cloning lobby,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe. “What we now know is that not only is it entirely possible to trace clones and their offspring, but to do so and label the resulting foods is arguably not the violation of WTO rules they said it was according to their own legal advice.

“We think it is highly unlikely that given the global economic and political situations the U.S. would even launch a WTO dispute over something like cloning when everyone admits it is hardly widespread. It would be pretty hard for them to defend when there is an FDA-requested ‘voluntary moratorium’ on cloning still in place to meet U.S. consumer demand and protect both domestic and export markets.

“Given all this, and the legal opinion that even a complete ban could be argued, the Parliament’s compromise position on labels as a ‘bare minimum’ is entirely justified and feasible. We’ve heard enough excuses. Cloning is unnecessary, unwanted and cruel. It’s time consumers were told where it is being used so they can avoid it.”

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Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact:

Eve Mitchell, Food & Water Europe, emitchell(at)fweurope.org, +44 (0)1381 610 740

Darcey Rakestraw, Food & Water Watch, drakestraw(at)fwwatch.org, +1 202-2683-2467

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