GM ruling hits exporters
week when an international conference on biotech safety agreed to
impose stricter labelling requirements on such products. The US,
which is the largest exporter of GM products, has already
criticised the ruling as unworkable.
The US said that the new requirements would disrupt international trade. But the measure has received support from Europe and a number of developing nations, who believe that the agreement will help improve global trade rules for GM foods.
An EU-led bloc at the conference in Kuala Lumpur, where more than 80 countries were represented, lobbied for detailed information to be contained in identification papers that accompany shipments of GM products. Delegates agreed that shipment documents should contain the scientific name and characteristics of GM ingredients.
The new measures form part of the UN Cartagena Protocol, which is meant to prevent potential biotechnology hazards by giving countries enough information about gene-altered products to decide whether to reject imports. The US has not yet signed the protocol, which has been ratified by the EU and 86 countries, but is likely to be subject to its terms when exporting to signatory countries.
Governments are expected to set up new facilities to evaluate GM shipments and establish specialised offices by September 2005 to enforce the protocol.
The conference also agreed to negotiate rules for international liability that would allow people to seek compensation from exporters for damage to the environment or health from GM products. Rules to establish liability for damage from GM organisms are likely to come into force by 2008.
The issue of crop contamination and the safety of GM food has become a hot topic at the moment. Last month, FoodProductionDaily.com reported on the case of a farmer in Saskatchewan province in Canada who was taken to court for growing patent-protected rapeseed on his land. The farmer argued that the genetically modified Roundup Ready rapeseed must have blown onto his field from neighbouring fields or from passing trucks, and that he was within his rights to save and replant seed from his plants.
Environmental pressure groups believe that the case illustrates the danger of GM crop contamination. "The fact is that oil seed rape is a very small seed, and can easily be blown around," said UK-based Friends of the Earth GM campaigner Pete Riley.
It is unlikely, therefore, that the ruling will prevent further confrontation over the controversial issue of GM exports. For a start, the EU is still contesting a suit filed by the US in the World Trade Organisation that seeks to lift a six-year EU moratorium against new biotech goods. The US claims the moratorium amounts to a trade barrier to protect European farmers.
