Dispute settlement

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy receives from Greenpeace Italy Genetic Engineering campaigner Federica Ferrario sacks of soy contaminated with genetically engineered (GE) varieties by the US-multinational GE company Monsanto.

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The WTO is also very powerful because it has a way of settling trade disputes that allows one country to impose massive monetary sanctions on another country that is found to have broken a WTO trade rule. The WTO decision is legally binding.

There is no other global dispute settlement mechanism for other bodies of law (such as environmental law) that can compete with this system.

What this means is that some countries prefer using the WTO to settle disputes for all sorts of different disagreements, instead of going through other, sometimes more appropriate avenues.

This gives the WTO very broad powers, not just on trade issues. Some WTO disputes have ruled on issues such as environment and human health.

Using the dispute settlement process to force genetically engineered food on the world

The EU has adopted the world's strictest rules on GMOs. But backed by the GE industry, the US is using the WTO to challenge the EU's tough stance on GMOs. The ultimate goal - to force GE food on the EU and the rest of the world.

What happens now will determine whether many countries and consumers will be forced to eat GE food. Find out more.