BRUSSELS — European Union (EU) regulators sought to give countries in the bloc scope to ban imports of genetically modified (GM) food and animal feed, risking a renewed transatlantic trade dispute.The European Commission proposed EU governments gain a right to opt out of rules making the 28-nation bloc a single market for genetically altered food and feed. With Europe split over the safety of genetically modified organisms, the commission wants to give opponents of genetic modification fewer grounds to hold up EU approvals urged by supporters of the technology.The new initiative is modelled on recent European legislation that lets national governments go their own way on cultivation of genetically modified crops. That law marked a triumph for proponents of a better-safe-than-sorry European policy and dented a free-trade tenet of the EU."The new approach aims to achieve the right balance between maintaining an EU authorisation system and the freedom for states to decide on use of gen...
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