‘Enormous gulf’ in world trade talks as Europe refuses to buy GM food

Europe’s reluctance to buy hormone meat or genetically modified food from the United States has exposed an “enormous gulf” that threatens the world’s biggest trade pact, industry and labour groups have told EU and US negotiators.

Eight months into talks to create a transatlantic pact encompassing almost half the world’s economy, divisions remain over opening up to each others goods, rules governing the names of foods and genetically modified food.

“There is an enormous gulf between the EU and US positions,” said Michael Dolan, a lobbyist for theUS Teamsters union, who rejected the idea that the European Union shouldbe the only market to call Greek-style cheese ‘feta’.