The Battle Over Caution.(precautionary principle applied to international trade regulation)

It is hard to argue that we're not "better safe than sorry," but Europe and the United States are indeed debating that motherly point. The European Union has enshrined the "precautionary principle" in its approach to regulation, which is to ban anything that might be dangerous, even before the scientific proof is in. The United States bans only what is proved harmful, after weighing the benefit to public health against the costs--and U.S. officials don't hide their impatience with what they see as soft and fuzzy European logic. Earlier this year a top Office of Management and Budget official told an EU audience that a universal application of precaution is a "mythical concept, perhaps like a unicorn."

With wounds still raw from the battle that ended with the withdrawal of U.S. steel tariffs last week, caution now comes to the fore. This week an EU decision on the safety of genetically modified sweet corn could break a five-year moratorium against the import of what many Europeans call "Frankenfood." And a European Union proposal last month to require registration and testing of all products containing any of some 10,000 chemicals has renewed accusations that Brussels is trying to establish itself as a globoregulator.

In fact Eurocrats are trying to take the precautionary principle out of the biotech debate, but could still be thwarted by politicians. In 1998, EU member states refused to approve any new GM crops until stricter laws on labeling and tracing biotech material were created, along with a watchdog agency. In its first decision, the new food- safety agency ruled last week that a Monsanto corn was "as safe as conventional maize," and approved it for import. The decision on Monsanto, a lightning rod for Europe's anti-GM protesters, must be approved early next year by a committee of member states. The committee (answerable to politicians) may tip its hand this week, when it votes on a sweet corn from Syngenta, which was declared safe by the precursor to the new food-safety agency. EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne warns against using "the precautionary principle as a political comfort blanket."

In practice, ...