Market access for Genetically Modified Foods (GMFs) is becoming a major international issue. The European Union has suggested that the SPS agreement should be renegotiated to take account of consumer preferences, a suggestion which has been rejected out of hand by the United States. We argue that the SPS should not be substantially altered but that consumer preferences do need to be taken into account at the WTO.
The WTO is not an international legal system, it is a voluntary political compromise. It has always been recognized that to make the WTO politically acceptable, domestic politicians must be allowed a means to respond when domestic protectionist pressures become too great. In fact, the entire history of the WTO/GATT can be seen as an attempt to increase the political costs of using the outs embedded in the agreements.
The only protectionist vested interest recognized by the WTO/GATT is producers. The entire WTO system, including the SPS, is oriented solely to limiting the ability of domestic politicians to extend protection to producers. The problem with GMFs is that it is not producers but rather consumers who are asking for protection. With no mechanism which recognizes consumers as the source of protectionist pressure, governments are going to be forced to attempt to use inappropriate producer based rules to attempt to extend protection. This will lead to acrimonious disputes and a reduction in the efficacy of the WTO.
The paper outlines how consumer concerns could be explicitly incorporated within the WTO/GATT structure while leaving the SPS, which is well designed to deal with producer protection issues, in tact. The problems with incorporating consumer concerns regarding GMFs are discussed and some solutions proposed.