The WTO Panel's Approach to the Precautionary Principle in the EC Biotech Case: What Implications for the WTO and International Environmental Law?

Abstract

The debate on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is of particular interest to developing countries including Uganda. In the purview of the intersection between Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization (WTO), the debate has manifested in consideration of the question of the applicability of the Precautionary Principle. This paper analyses the WTO panel’s decision in the EC Biotech case. The main intention is to illustrate that the precautionary principle is an important principle in international environmental law, notwithstanding the fact that it is surrounded by a lot of controversy. States apply this principle to protect their citizens and not even WTO litigation can prevent them from doing that. The principle is vital and its application should be strengthened rather than relegated to some redundant, illogical conception of paranoid environmentalists by the WTO and other international dispute resolution mechanisms. Through its analysis of the EC Biotech case, the paper shows that some aspects of the principle do need clarity and some suggestions are made in that regard. But sometimes, like in the WTO cases, the principle is either not well appreciated or easily confused with the principle of prevention. This paper also shows that the WTO has deliberately adopted a mundane approach to discussing the principle’s status and its implications for WTO dispute settlement as well as international environmental law and international law in general. This approach is deplorable and a waste of time. Instead, the WTO and other dispute resolution mechanisms should work towards a convergence on how to refine and apply the principle in tandem with other non-environmental obligations.