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This book presents an engaging and thorough study of a seemingly intractable international trade dispute, primarily between the United States and Europe, over the dissemination of genetically engineered foods. The United States and several other countries have increasingly approved transgenic (also known as "genetically modified" or "GM") foods for public consumption, while the European Community (EC) has strongly resisted the introduction of this new technology. From 1998 to 2004, the EC imposed a moratorium on approvals for the marketing of transgenic foods in the EC. It continues to approve new marketing requests desultorily and to pursue an effective moratorium on the cultivation of transgenic species today, despite losing a challenge before the WTO Dispute Settlement Body brought by the United States.
The multiple layers of this dispute provide the basis for an edifying study of the causes, dynamics, and consequences of international regulatory conflict. The United States and Europe have demonstrated unequal levels of trust in corporate ethics, the government's regulatory rigour, and the completeness and accuracy of scientific information on the health and environmental consequences of GM foods. Differing tort liability rules also provide dissimilar incentives for agribusinesses in the United States and Europe to take strong precautions against any health, safety, or environmental risks posed by their products or production methods. Different media events relating to food safety and technology have affected cultural expectations about biotechnology in the two regions. There are, moreover, multiple treaty and institutional regimes mediating the dispute, including inter alia the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Convention on Biological Diversity and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (formed by the WHO and �
