AgBioForum – Volume 3, Number 1 – 2000 – Pages 53-57

LABELING POLICY FOR GMOS: TO EACH HIS OWN?1

Julie A. Caswell1
GMO labeling policy for foods is under intense development. Countries are choosing mandatory labeling or adherence to voluntary labeling. Challenges to mandatory labeling are unlikely to be successful under current World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Marketers and trade negotiators should recognize this and move toward living with diversity in labeling policy. Keywords: GMOs; biotechnology; labeling policy; trade disputes.

We are at another important crossroads on the path that will determine the market acceptance of foods produced with the use of biotechnology. Individual governments are managing a range of policies that affect biotechnology, including those on research and development, intellectual property rights, regulatory approval (safety assessment), and labeling requirements. They are taking divergent policy paths that make for market uncertainty. At the same time, companies are announcing their intentions regarding the use or non-use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their products.
These intentions make the market less uncertain for sales to those companies but raise the stakes in predicting the choices of other companies.
Labeling policy for food products is currently under intense development in several countries. What are the basic requirements for such labeling programs and what policies are countries adopting? What are the consequences of each country’s pursuit of the policy that best seems to fit its needs? Finally, is it likely that these policies could be successfully challenged under WTO rules?

Why Labeling Policy?
Labeling is often used to deliver information to consumers on characteristics of products that they are not able to evaluate. Economists refer to this type of characteristic as a