The war in Iraq is over, and so a fight with Europe may finally begin. As the Roman historian Livy said 2,000 years ago: “Potius sero quam numquam.”
In plain English, that means “Better late than never.”
To the uninitiated, reading the rules of the World Trade Organization can be like reading Latin: It’s an arcane language that almost nobody speaks. And yet it’s possible to translate WTO regulations into plain English and apply them to real-world situations--and that’s what our government is now trying to do in an attempt to address what may be the highest profile agricultural trade dispute in the world right now.
In October 1998, the European Union imposed a moratorium on approving new biotech crops. Last week, the United States and a dozen other countries at last reached their wits end over this protectionist policy and filed a formal complaint with the WTO.
We’ve been patient with Europe for nearly five years. In that time, the EU’s politicians and bureaucrats have refused to recognize what everybody who has studied the matter knows beyond any reasonable doubt, biotech food is perfectly safe. Even the French Academy of Medicine and Pharmacy and the French Academy of Sciences hold this view.
If our WTO complaint is successful--and just about every observer believes it will be--then the United States will gain the right to retaliate against Europe products. That’s not a great outcome, because we should be doing everything possible to encourage international trade. Yet it’s a tool we must now use to pry open a European market that’s been unfairly closed to us for so long.
The Bush administration had planned to file the WTO complaint several months ago. News stories in January indicated that the step was imminent. But then preparations for the war in Iraq took over and everything else went on hold. Officials once had hoped that Europe would support the policy of regime change in Iraq, and didn’t want a trade dispute to complicate their diplomacy.
That was an understandable decision, and perhaps it eased the way for some countries to join the effort against Saddam Hussein. The big prizes of France and Germany, of course, refused to aid the war effort at all.
Yet we haven’t had much trouble assembling a coalition against the EU in the biotech trade war. Argentina, Canada, and Egypt have joined the United States in the complaint, and nine other countries have signed on as third parties: Australia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, and Uruguay.
Much of the developing world is counting on us to win, too.
“Biotech food helps nourish the world’s hungry population, offers tremendous opportunities for better health and nutrition, and protects the environment by reducing soil erosion and pesticide use,” said U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick as he filed the complaint last week.
“In places where food is scarce or climates can be harsh,” he added, “increased agricultural productivity through biotechnology can spell the difference between life and death, between health and disease, for millions of the world’s poorest people.”
In recent months, we’ve seen southern African countries with millions of starving people make the remarkable decision of rejecting U.S. food aid comprised partially of biotech crops. They’re worried that the EU will punish them by shutting down their export markets in future years.
This is madness. Americans have been eating biotech foods without hesitation or worry for years. The EU, however, is so determined to protect a few special interests at home that it will bully poor people abroad into malnourishment and death.
For many of those now suffering, the WTO won’t provide relief soon enough. It encourages countries to settle their disagreements through negotiations, and over the next two months the United States is supposed to consult with the EU. If there’s no resolution after this period--and there won’t be, because there hasn’t been a resolution for almost five years--then the matter moves before a panel that will hear arguments in a process that typically lasts about 18 months.
That’s a long time from now, but at least we know the end is in sight. Repeat after me: Potius sero quam numquam.
News 
The war in Iraq is over, and so a fight with Europe may finally begin. As the Roman historian Livy said 2,000 years ago: “Potius sero quam numquam.”
