Challenges to EU regulation of GMOs beyond European context

This article analyses the factors that precipitated the transatlantic conflict over agricultural biotechnology. One of the reasons that led to international trade dispute between the EU and the US is the difference in approaches to the regulation of genetically modified organisms. EU risk regulation relates to WTO legal system through the generic approach to risk analysis on a global scale. The WTO and the EU mutually influence each other. EU regulation on GMOs crosses over WTO rules on trade liberalization. The pressure of international legal regimes such as the WTO gives an impetus for regulatory change, making rules and values of different legal systems adapt to each other. On the other hand, EU regulation on agricultural biotechnology is likely to retain its formal independence since the EU, like other WTO members, has the right to establish the level of protection of the environment, human, animal and plant health that it deems appropriate