Two new laws passed by the European Union parliament on labelling and tracing of GM foods will make the issue more complicated, not less, the agricultural official at the US mission to the EU said.

"No one's going to jump to conclusions that the vote today ends the debate and we're going to move on to something else. It's not that simple," he told

"We've been in discussions for five years now on the moratorium. We've seen the goalposts moved many times over the last five years and frankly we've been very patient with this issue," the official said.

"If this in fact does move the issue forward... then obviously we would have to rethink it (the complaint at the World Trade Organisation). But we'll have to wait and see."

The European Parliament Wednesday agreed two new directives that will require food and animal feed to be labelled if it contains at least 0.9 percent of GM ingredients.

Companies supplying GM produce will have to keep full records to ensure their progress through the food processing and distribution chain can be traced if necessary.

With opinion polls showing European consumers overwhelmingly opposed to GM products, the risk for biotech companies is that their goods will be shunned by big food suppliers in Europe such as supermarkets.

"Our food safety philosophy is that a consumer should not have to look at a label to try to determine if the food product he's purchasing is wholesome and safe," the US official said.

"All foods should already have been determined by the government as being wholesome and safe for consumers to purchase."

The tracing directive would be hideously complicated for biotechnology companies, the official added.

"When the products get highly processed with multiple ingredients from different sources... it gets more and more complex for the producer to say that what is on that label is fact," he said.

The official also hit back at criticism by Greenpeace that the US government is trying to bully opponents of its GM policy into submission by resorting to the WTO.

"The WTO contains dispute settlement procedures that are available to anyone to use when they believe their access to markets is being restricted in an unfair manner," he said.

"The US uses these tools, the EU uses these tools, many countries use these tools."

TERRA.WIRE