‘Approved once, accepted everywhere’: Biotechnology products and transatlantic trade networks

Journalists have become accustomed to reporting on transatlantic trade disputes in dramatic terms. Recent BBC reports, for example, include ‘EU opens new front in trade war’ (1 March 2004) and ‘Who will win the EU-US trade war?’ (1 May 2005). These articles discuss corporation tax on foreign sales and subsidies to aerospace companies; similar articles have been written about steel products and bananas. The transatlantic conflict over GM products has been treated in the same way. BBC articles include ‘New US-EU trade war looms’ (2 December 2002) and ‘US escalate GM trade war’ (25 June 2003). All of these articles raise concerns about a growing number of disputes between the world’s largest trading partners.