This enables us to be full partners at the negotiating table. Neither producers' interests nor trade concerns can be allowed to jeopardise the objective of food safety and health. The international community should seek in the WTO to avoid damaging disputes about food safety standards. For me, this means taking a science-based approach. Regulators have to make their decisions on the best scientific advice available.
Risk management has to be distinct from risk assessment which is undertaken by the scientists.
The EU has asked for further work at the international level to clarify this principle. We are working at present in the EU to try and establish guidelines where the precautionary principle should be applied i.e. in a situation where the scientific evidence is uncertain. We need a methodology and we need to engage in widespread discussion at international level so that, on the one hand consumers feel that they are adequately protected, but, on the other hand that our partners know that our decisions are not arbitrary and disguised protectionism. As far as I am aware, this approach is not really shared by many WTO members. Scientists and policy makers, and by that I also mean law makers, can have a different role in the application of the precautionary principle.