Seems the US Trade Representative's WTO climax - see earlier bulletin - was a mite premature (item 1).
lawyers' delight:
1.WTO delays ruling in GMO dispute until next week
2.Argentina targets Monsanto soy suits in Europe
3.Monsanto gets notice over 'exorbitant' royalty
---
1.WTO delays ruling in GMO dispute until next week
REUTERS, Jan 30, 2006
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-01-30T171006Z_01_L30687146_RTRUKOC_0_UK-TRADE-WTO-GMO.xml
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has again delayed a ruling, due on Wednesday, in a closely watched dispute over the European Union's policy on genetically modified foods and crops (GMO), diplomats said on Monday.
They said the preliminary decision in a row pitting the EU against the United States, Canada and Argentina was now expected on February 7.
"They have told us that it will not be out on Wednesday," said one diplomat from a country involved.
In 2004, Brussels officially ended a 6-year embargo on biotech crops and foods to allow some imports. But its opponents in the case say that EU states are still restricting entry of GMOs, and in some cases banning them.
Growers in Argentina, Canada and the United States say the EU stance limits their right to trade and the policy is not scientifically based, as WTO rules demand.
Trade sources said the ruling in the complex case is going to be one of the longest ever issued by the Geneva-based trade watchdog, with the text running to several hundred pages.
---
2.Argentina targets Monsanto soy suits in Europe
KTIC 840 Rural Radio [shortened] http://ellinghuysen.com/news/articles/27814.shtml
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Jan 26, 2006 (Reuters) - Argentina next week will formally ask to participate in patent infringement lawsuits filed by Monsanto Co. in Europe, charging that the company's efforts to extract royalty fees on Argentine soy grown with Monsanto technology harms the entire sector.
Last June, the U.S. biotech pioneer sued importers of Argentine soy in Denmark and the Netherlands to enforce patents in those countries on its Roundup Ready gene technology.
And this week, the company stopped two boatloads of Argentine soymeal in Spanish ports, threatening to sue there as well. Europe is the top market for Argentina's soymeal, and the South American nation is the world's No.1 soymeal supplier.
"If the company has decided to take legal action and harm Argentine exports, the Argentine government is not going to turn a blind eye," Gustavo Idigoras, Argentina's agricultural attache in Brussels, told Reuters on Thursday by telephone.
Idigoras said the government may also sue Monsanto directly in European courts, citing economic harm to Argentine exports.
The government estimates that 30 percent of Argentine farmers buy GMO seeds on the black market, avoiding royalty fees historically embedded in seed prices. By law, farmers are allowed to reuse GMO seeds without paying the fees.
Monsanto, based in St.Louis, Missouri, has been lobbying for two years for a change in the royalties collection system, but the government is unwilling to alter the basic structure.
Although Monsanto stopped selling its own Roundup Ready soybean seeds in Argentina two years ago, other seed makers sell varieties with that same technology under license.
Argentina's Center for Grain Exporters and the Chamber of Vegetable Oil Industries said in a joint statement that Monsanto's actions endanger soymeal exports to Europe worth more than $2 billion a year.
"This has increased European importers' concerns about sealing commercial deals with our country, making such deals more difficult and increasing uncertainty in the market for these products," the groups said, urging all players in the soy sector to quickly find alternative solutions.
Roundup Ready is not patented in Argentina, but the government says it respects the rights of Monsanto and other seed companies to charge for the technologies they develop.
In its bid to participate as a third party in the Danish and Dutch suits, Idigoras said Argentina argues that Monsanto's actions have inflicted economic damage on both the state and Argentine farmers and exporters.
---
3.Monsanto gets notice over 'exorbitant' royalty
Manoj Mitta
Times of India, January 29, 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1390908.cms
NEW DELHI: The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) on Friday issued notices to biotech major Monsanto and its Indian affiliates on a reference made by the Andhra Pradesh government on the controversial Bt cotton seed.
The state, which has seen a spate of suicides among cotton farmers in recent years, is accusing the multinational of collecting "exorbitant" royalty from farmers, taking undue advantage of its monopoly in providing different varieties of pest-resi stant genetically modified hybrid cotton seed.
In an unprecedented move, Andhra Pradesh has asked MRTPC to restrain Monsanto from charging a royalty of Rs 1,250 on each 450 gm packet of Bt cotton seed and thereby pushing its selling price to around Rs 1,800.
It alleges that the royalty charged by Monsanto for similar hybrids in the US works out to no more than Rs 108
Go to a Print friendly Page
Email this Article to a Friend
Back to the Archive
|
