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that no such moratorium existed. The WTO judges argued the EU was "guilty" of not following EU rules, causing "undue delay" in following WTO obligations. 2 The secretive WTO tribunal also ruled, according to the leaked document, that formal EU government approval to plant specific GMO plants had also been unduly delayed in the cases of 24 out of 27 specific GMO products presented to the European Commission in Brussels. The WTO tribunal recommended that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the world trade policeman, call on the EU to bring its practices "into conformity with its obligations under the (WTO's) SPS Agreement." That was the notorious Sanitary and Phytosanitary escape clause of the agribusiness industry allowing it to use WTO trade supremacy to trample national rights to care for the health and safety of their citizens. Failure to comply with WTO demands could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual fines to the European Union. 3 The EU Commission itself, the powerful, largely unaccountable bureaucracy in Brussels which controls the daily lives of some 470 million EU citizens in 25 member countries, was split over GMO. A Danish Agriculture Commissioner was strongly pro-GMO. The EU Environment Minister, from Greece which had a law strictly banning GMO, was strongly anti-GMO. Farmers across the EU were organizing spontaneous "GMO-free" zones and putting pressure on their politicians not to bow to WTO demands. Opinion surveys showed repeatedly than European citizens, when asked, expressed a strong negative view on GMO, often by margins of 60% or more. 4 Geneticists Who "Play at Being God" On April 14, 2006, at his Good Friday meditations, the highest authority of the Roman Catholic Church, German-born Pope Benedict XVI made a clear and bold declaration. The Pontiff condemned genetic scientists "who play at being God." Addressing the recent scientific developments in the field of genetic engineering, the Pope sternly warned against their attempts
