Policy debates over the development of new GMOs (genetically modified Organisms) frequently implicate state’s regulation and governance, the purpose of which has traditionally been to mitigate the risk of new technologies through promotion of conditions of safe use. However, although the United States and the European Union share a common desire to provide a safe food supply and credible regulatory systems, they have adopted two very different regulatory approaches to deal with the GMOs coming to market. Consequently, the US-EU relationship has become fraught with conflict over the GM foods issue. This paper explores the nature of the two regulatory systems and the underlying social, political, and institutional factors that contributed to the development of these systems. It then explores the impact of these two regulatory systems on international trade. We distinguish between producer protectionism, a commonly recognized trade impediment, and overprotection of consumers that can also have trade implications. Because the trade conflicts over GM foods could result in serious consequences for both the US-EU relationship and the multilateral system of trade rules, various attempts at bilateral and multilateral reconciliation have been made. Unfortunately, most of these attempts have stalled or failed. Finally, the paper explores the SPS agreement of TO as an only possible solution to the conflict and could allow the EU and the US to reach consensus without resulting in major trade disruptions.