Reuters | February 2, 2000 | By David Evans
BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled guidelines on how it believes public health can be protected with cautionary trade bans when faced with insufficient or conflicting science.
The so-called precautionary principle has been used as a defence by the European Union in its row with the United States over hormone-treated beef and formed part of the new U.N. biodiversity protocol on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The Commission said in a statement the guidelines would "provide a useful tool for taking political decisions ... when science is unable to assess completely the risk."
However, the wording of the final document adopted by the Commission was diluted slightly on the contentious issue of how much weight should be given to minority scientific opinions.
An earlier draft, obtained by Reuters, said the views of a minority of the scientific community could justify action. But the final version merely said "due account should be taken of their views."
The United States fears the elevation of the precautionary principle into a political concept could prompt the EU to use it in future transatlantic trade disputes to justify blocking products despite rulings from the World Trade Organisation.
But the Commission said the guidelines guarded against "unwarranted recourse to the precautionary principle as a disguised form of protectionism."
In the decade-old dispute with the United States over beef treated with artificial growth hormones, the EU has lost a WTO panel, resulting in the imposition of $117 million in sanctions.
But it still argues that its embargo is justified by evidence from scientists that hormones may be carcinogenic.
The Commission is still completing detailed scientific studies and says the ban will remain in force in the meantime.
The paper said any measures taken on the basis of the precautionary principle should be applied consistently and be subject to review in the light of new scientific data.
But it defended the EU's right to invoke the principle.
"The Commission considers the Community, like other World Trade Organisation members, has the right to establish the level of protection -- particularly of the environment, health, safety and consumers -- that it deems appropriate," the paper said.
"Applying the precautionary principle is a key tenet of its policy, and the choices it makes to this end will continue to affect the views it defends internationally," it added.
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