The Trade Dispute About Genetically Engineered Products : Argentina Against the European Communities

This article aims to describe the circumstances and development of the first significant trade dispute involving the regulatory views on genetically engineered (GE, referred to as genetically modified, GM, in the European Legislation) crops. It will also show how the World Trade Organization (WTO) managed through this complex case, which—in addition to its basic long standing rules—was called to deal with emerging environmental international legislation and with food-safety issues. An additional purpose of this work is to show how social concerns over risks may impose changes on local legislation which, in turn, would impact the regulations of a trade partner. Finally, another pupose of this article is to stress the importance of keeping the highest quality standards in seeking scientific evidence on which to base regulatory decisions. This case, which needed the help of a prominent group of experts to advise the WTO Panel, has several interesting features. It has shown i) the impact of measures supposedly addressed at the protection of the environment, on trade decisions, and regulatory policies of trade partners; ii) the limitations of an extreme concept of “precaution” when there is insufficient scientific evidence, and its relatioship with the social perception of risk; iii) that the judicial authority of the WTO was able to make legal distinctions against the biased construction of misrepresented scientific findings; and iv) the fundamental role of science in solving trade disputes related to new technologies. Regulations and Trade Issues