WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Congressional leaders on Tuesday applauded the Bush administration's plan to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the European Union's ban on importing biotech food and commodities.
"There's no question in my mind that the European Union's projectionist, discriminatory trade policies are costing American agriculture and our nation's economy hundreds of millions of dollars each and every year," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said.
Hastert said the moratorium on bioengineered food and agricultural products has cost the U.S. $300 million in annual losses over corn exports.
Hastert appeared before reporters along with chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said the challenge to the European Union moratorium could clear the way for exports of genetically modified food to starving people in Africa.
The U.S. Trade Representative filed a case objecting to the European Union's moratorium on genetically modified foods with the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, USTR spokesman Rich Mills said.
"I'm glad this is filed and hope we will win it," Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said.
Zoellick told reporters a consequence of the European Union moratorium on biotech food is preventing genetically modified corn grown in South Africa from being distributed to nearby Namibia.
"One of the reasons all of us felt that the patience has run out is the effect of this moratorium is not just on European consumers, it's on people all around the world," Zoellick said. "It's a very negative effect."
-By Rob Wells, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9272; Rob.Wells@dowjones.com
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