The European Commission has attacked a decision by the United States to start a trade dispute over an effective European Union ban on new genetically modified foods.
"The Commission regrets this move which it believes is misguided and unnecessary," Commission trade spokeswoman Ms Arancha Gonzalez told reporters after Washington announced it was launching a case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), along with Canada, Argentinia and Egypt.
"We have a system for authorising GMOs in the EU which is clear, transparent and non-discriminatory," she said.
But Ms Gonzalez said Brussels hoped that bilateral disputes between the two world's two biggest trade blocs would not derail global trade liberalisation talks launched in Doha in 2001.