[Gen-Streitfall] Fwd: info from EC official on trade dispute

[Cornelia Reetz]

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Dear all,

below some info on the selection of panelist for the GM case at the WTO
and about transparency issues.

SELECTION OF PANELISTS

Next monday the parties of the dispute, namely the EC, US, Argentina and
Canada will come together to discuss who will sit on the panel to decide
whether we all have to eat GMOs .

The WTO secretariat has submitted the CVs of 6 suggested panelists to
the parties and this will be discussed in a short meeting on monday. It
is not likely that the parties will agree at all and so they will
probably get some more suggestions for panelists by end of next week and
one or more meetings will follow to try to find a consensus. In case the
parties cannot agree on all panelists or on none of them, the director
general Supachai will then choose the panelists.

However, according to the EC officials, Supachai needs after the Cancun
debacle certainly some time for a break, so that the timetable that we
have sent to you earlier will have to be postponed to 1 or more weeks to
come before the timetable of the case will be fixed.

As ou know, FoEE has written to Supachai asking him to ensure that
panelists will have no corporate influence what so ever. We still await
a reply.

TRANSPARENCY
Concerning transparency and how to find out what is happening behind
closed doors, I was told that Brussels together with the US might make
take some special transparency measures given the public interest in the
case. This however still has to be discussed. So far all proceedings
take place behind closed doors and are officially confidential.

This mean that we are entirley dependent on good contacts with EC and
WTO officials who are willing to tell us about what is happening.

If you have any more news, please share them with us.

That's it for now, cheers,

alexandra


--
ONE MINUTE ACTION:
GLOBAL TRADE TALKS IN CANCUN-TELL WORLD LEADERS NOW:
DON'T LET BIG BUSINESS RULE THE WORLD!

Tell YOUR Government that instead of more rights for big business, we
need greater rights for people and the environment.

E-mail YOUR Government now:
http://www.foeeurope.org/put_people_and_planet_first
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
alexandra wandel
trade and sustainability co-ordinator
friends of the earth europe (FoEE)
15, rue blanche (NEW number)
B-1050 Brussels (NEW postal code!)
fon: +32 2 542 01 89 (direct). In Cancun: ++(52) 9981 20 45 86 (9-16
September)
http://www.foeeurope.org/trade and http://www.foei.org/cancun



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