Adrian Bebb Quotations

Documentation is the big issue, the key thing to trigger the whole protocol, for whether it works or not -- and whether countries have the right to know what's being imported.

The WTO has bluntly ruled that European safeguards should be sacrificed to benefit biotech corporations.

The WTO has bluntly ruled that European safeguards (bans) should be sacrificed to benefit biotech corporations. This will backfire and lead to even greater opposition to genetically modified food and crops. Consumers worldwide will not be bullied into eating GM foods.

Opposition to genetically modified foods is likely to increase if the WTO decides that European safeguards should be sacrificed to benefit biotech corporations. The WTO, the US administration and biotech firms should stop their bullying and let Europeans decide what food we eat.

We welcome the Commission acknowledging there is a problem. Europe's food safety net is clearly not working and so the approvals of new genetically modified foods should be halted until the public is fully protected.

The EU is going to be bruised. It might be a moral victory for industry but that's about it. It's fairly obvious that they (WTO) will come out against the national bans.

This is the report that the WTO didn't want the public to see. It reveals that the big corporations that stand behind the WTO failed to get the big win they were hoping for. Free trade proponents needed a clear victory in this dispute to be able to push governments in the EU and the developing world to accept genetically modified food. They failed and now is the time to build a consensus that the WTO, with its business-only agenda, is the wrong place to decide on what people eat and how we protect our environment.

The Commission should be welcomed for acknowledging a problem with their food safety authority, but it needs to go further.