WTO Must Apply The Precautionary Principle: Greenpeace
WTO MUST APPLY THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE: GREENPEACE
GENEVA, March 23, 2000 - The credibility of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be further diminished unless it
recognises and implements the precautionary principle, Greenpeace said today as world trade talks on agriculture resumed
here.
Greenpeace was today beginning the first dialogue with the WTO since the breakdown of international trade talks in
Seattle last year. Greenpeace is holding a workshop today in Geneva for WTO staff and delegates on a key area of dispute
– the precautionary principle - which involves the recognition that governments must take action to protect the
environment before environmental damage occurs. An example is genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which are being
grown and promoted before their long-term impacts are understood or even identified.
“Recognition and use of the precautionary principle was made in the international agreement to protect biodiversity from
genetically modified organism (GMO)s, known as the Biosafety Protocol, which was adopted in January in Montreal” said
Greenpeace International Political Director Remi Parmentier. “These negotiations went some way towards resolving the
uncertainties surrounding the relationship of the WTO with multilateral environmental agreements.” The protocol states:
”that this Protocol shall not be interpreted as implying an incompatibility with the rights and obligations of a Party
under any existing international agreements applying to the transboundary movements of living modified organisms”.
Parmentier said past experience had shown that much human suffering and economic loss could have been avoided if the
precautionary principle had been applied when early scientific warnings were made about the impact of CFCs on the ozone
layer, the build up of persistent organic pollutants in the environment, the collapse of commercial fisheries and
climate change.
He said trade-related measures to protect the environment could be useful for managing consumption and catalysing
international action, as shown with the prevention of imports of hazardous wastes by developing countries that led to
the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (1989), and the controversy over GMOs that has
led to the adoption of the Biosafety Protocol in January 2000.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: end
James Williams Greenpeace International (Press Office) 176 Keizersgracht 1016 DW Amsterdam Netherlands. Phone: ++ 31
(20) 5249 515 Fax: ++ 31 20 523 6212