CIEL publishes first in-depth analysis of the EC-Biotech Interim Report

March 31, 2006

On February 7, 2006, a Dispute Settlement Panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued the interim report in the European Communities – Measures affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products (EC-Biotech) case. Interim reports in the WTO contain all of the elements of a final report, but are released only to the parties to the dispute. As of this writing, the EC-Biotech report is still officially interim and secret, but has been made available to the public by Friends of the Earth Europe, which obtained a leaked report. "EC-Biotech: Overview and Analysis of the Panel's Interim Report" by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) is first in-depth legal analysis of this text.

The objective of the CIEL analysis is to provide an overview of the main findings and reasoning in the Panel’s Interim Report. The analysis evaluates the Panel’s findings in relation to the three categories of challenged measures – the alleged general moratorium on the approval of biotech products, the related product-specific measures, and the EC member State measures related to the import and/or marketing of specific biotech products on – as well as addresses crosscutting issues such as transparency, public participation, and the relevance of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in interpreting WTO. Nevertheless, the analysis does not cover the arguments of the Parties or the findings of the Panel in their entirety. Instead, it focuses on the points of the reasoning of the Panel most relevant for the challenged measures and for broader discussions on the relationship between WTO rules and biosafety and biotechnology regulations.