This is a huge international issue involving not only the US and the EU but also many other countries such as Argentina and Canada (who have joined the US in their request for a WTO panel) as well as an increasing number of developing countries.

We need to be careful to focus our small association team on what is directly relevant to our members most of whom do not have a direct GM involvement at the moment. It is not a primary role of ESA to be the advocate of this technology. Although it will be most important in the future it is nevertheless only one of the many technologies which our members use or may use. Our input to the large-scale international political debate is therefore very limited – e.g. offering views to legislators on what the technology could offer and what the effects of current policies are on long-term research work here in the EU.