Author: Robin Pomeroy
Publication: Reuters News Service
Date: Tuesday, September 09, 2003

BRUSSELS - Both sides in a row over genetically modified (GMO) foods claimed victory on Tuesday when the European Union's top court ruled that Italy had the right to ban GMO maize (corn) if it can show grounds to suspect it is a health risk.

Both Italy and Monsanto hailed the ruling, with the biotech firm predicting the Italian courts would now overturn Italy's three-year old ban on varieties of GMO maize which are allowed to be sold elsewhere in the EU.

"It is a positive outcome for us," Monsanto spokesman Tom McDermott told Reuters. "We anticipate that the (Italian) court will follow it and the position (ban) will be revoked."

Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli told a press conference in Brussels: "I am very pleased that Italy has won."

The European Court of Justice ruled on a legal challenge by Monsanto, Syngenta and the Italian unit of Pioneer against Italy's decision in 2000 to ban varieties of maize genetically altered to resist pests and chemical sprays.

Italian scientists had found residues of GMO protein in the milled maize which had been approved on behalf of the whole EU by British and French authorities under a simplified procedure used when GMO foods are "substantially equivalent" to conventional ones.

The court said the detection of GMO protein did not undermine the original "simplified" authorisation and was not in itself grounds to ban the maize.

"However, if a member state has detailed grounds to suspect such a risk, it may temporarily restrict or suspend the trade in and use of the food in question in its territory," the court said in a statement.

The Italian courts will now have to rule whether Italy's fears were well grounded. "The risk must not be purely hypothetical or be founded on mere suppositions which are not yet verified," the court statement said.

NO NEW EVIDENCE

Monsanto believes Italy will present no new evidence to show the maize could imperil human health or the environment.

"It is extremely unlikely," McDermott said. "These products have been reviewed by authorities not just in the EU, but around the world, in the United States, Canada and Japan."

He said the court had sent a message to EU member states that to ban products approved at EU-level they could not rely on "arbitrary, capricious and politically inspired" arguments.

The case is one part of a political and scientific tussle in the EU over how to treat GMO foods, which some consumer groups and environmentalists fear could pose hidden risks to health and the environment.

The United States, Canada and Argentina, which are major growers of GMO crops, have taken the EU to the World Trade Organisation for refusing to authorise any new GMO strains since 1998 pending tougher rules on safety testing and labelling.

Italy is one of a band of EU states which has pledged to uphold the unofficial moratorium on new GMO products which EU lawmakers predict will be lifted early next year.

The maize varieties in the Italian case were approved for use before those states imposed the EU-wide moratorium.

(Additional reporting by Dougals Bakshian in Luxembourg and Aine Gallagher in Brussels)