Fwd: WTO Update + EPA Policy Inadequate

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20 Jun 2003 11:36:07 -0000

 

News Update from The Campaign

WTO Update + EPA Policy Inadequate

 

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

Preliminary talks about the World Trade Organization (WTO) case the

United States has filed against the European Union (EU) have broken

down. The two sides met to see if the dispute over genetically

engineered foods could be resolved by discussing the matter. It came as

no surprise that the talks failed.

 

The first two articles posted below will discuss the WTO case further.

The first article is from The New York Times titled " Talks Collapse on

U.S. Efforts to Open Europe to Biotech Food. " The second article from

Bloomberg News is titled " EU, U.S. Talks on Gene-Altered Food Fail; WTO

Panel to Get Case. "

 

The third article is from The New York Times titled " Report Says More

Farmers Don't Follow Biotech Rules. " This revealing article discusses a

new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

about the failure of nearly 20 percent of farmers to follow the proper

Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for growing genetically

engineered corn.

 

This CSPI report is just another example of how ineffective the

regulations are over genetically engineered foods in the United States.

Yet the U.S. wants to force our ineffective regulations on the EU

nations. It should be no surprise that the EU is fighting back.

 

Craig Winters

Executive Director

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

 

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

Fax: 603-825-5841

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign

for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass

legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered

foods in the United States. "

 

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Talks Collapse on U.S. Efforts to Open Europe to Biotech Food

 

The New York Times

By DAVID LEONHARDT

 

WASHINGTON, June 19 - Talks between the United States and the European

Union over opening up Europe to genetically modified foods broke down in

Geneva today, the Bush administration announced, heightening

trans-Atlantic tensions.

 

American officials said they would soon request that the World Trade

Organization convene a panel to hear their case, in an effort to end a

ban that farm groups say is depriving agricultural businesses of

hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

 

The Bush administration called Europe's policy illegal, saying that

scientific research had shown genetically altered crops to be safe. The

European Union " denies choices to European consumers, " Richard Mills, a

spokesman for the United States trade representative, Robert Zoellick,

said in a statement today.

 

European officials said the long-term effects of altered food remained

uncertain. They said they were disappointed by the administration's

publicizing of the dispute.

 

The food dispute is one of a handful of trade fights between the United

States and Europe and comes as tensions linger over the war in Iraq,

which many European countries opposed. Trade officials also continue to

haggle over steel tariffs imposed by the Bush administration last year,

farm subsidies on both sides of the Atlantic, and an American law that

reduces taxes for companies with overseas operations, among other

issues.

 

" There have never been more of these litigations than there are right

now, " Robert E. Lighthizer, a trade lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate,

Meagher & Flom in Washington, said of the disputes. He said the

relationship was " extremely contentious. "

 

American and European officials met in Geneva today for a round of

negotiations, known as a consultation, after the United States filed

suit at the W.T.O. over the issue last month. Today's announcement means

that the trade organization will soon begin selecting a panel of judges

to hear the case, although a decision is likely to take months.

 

Genetically modified food - which can grow more quickly than traditional

crops and can be resistant to insects - has caused scant controversy in

the United States, where people eat it every day. Almost 40 percent of

all corn planted in this country in genetically modified.

 

In Europe, however, the environmental movement is more powerful, and a

series of food problems, including mad cow disease, have made people far

more skeptical of assurances of safety from governments and businesses.

Some food packages there bear the label " GM free, " and the initials are

well enough known to be used regularly in headlines in British

newspapers.

 

The European Commission has permitted the use of some genetically

modified foods, like soybeans, in the last decade, but has effectively

placed a moratorium on most new products.

 

The Bush administration and agricultural businesses view the policy as

simple protectionism because American companies, which dominate the

biotechnology industry,would benefit most from lifting the ban. Without

it, American companies would export about $300 billion more in corn each

year than they do now, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

 

Scientific research has generally shown that genetically modified foods

do not cause health problems.

 

" Countries shouldn't be able to erect barriers for nonscientific

reasons, " Don Lipton, a spokesman for the farm federation, said. " That's

a very important principle in international trade. "

 

In a speech last month, President Bush escalated the dispute by saying

that Europe's policy was undermining efforts to fight hunger in Africa.

African nations, fearing their products would be shunned by Europe, are

avoiding developing genetically modified food that might help feed the

continent, he said. " European governments should join, not hinder, the

great cause of ending hunger in Africa, " he said in the speech.

 

European diplomats reacted angrily to Mr. Bush's comments, saying that

their health concerns were serious and noting that European nations

spend a greater part of their budget on foreign aid than the United

States.

 

European officials have also said that they are surprised that the

United States has highlighted the dispute recently. This summer, the

European Parliament is scheduled to consider a measure that would

establish strict labeling rules for genetically modified products, which

could allow more of them to be sold.

 

Europe's resistance to modified crops received a political lift last

week when a global treaty restricting them was approved. Although it is

not clear what effect the treaty, known as the Cartagena Protocol on

Biosafety, will have on the trade dispute, it is likely to make it

easier for countries to restrict importing the crops, trade experts say.

 

The United States, worried about the treaty's impact on American

exporters, agreed only reluctantly to support it when it was negotiated

in 2000.

 

Announcing that the talks between Europe and the United States had

broken down today, Mr. Mills, the trade representative's spokesman, said

in his statement that he was " disappointed but not surprised. "

 

He added, " We'll be moving forward with requesting a panel " to decide

the case.

 

Willy Helin, a European Commission spokesman, said that European

officials had explained their policy fully to the United States

delegation today, but that they had expected the dispute to reach the

next level.

 

" This is a first formal step, " he said.

 

Argentine officials, who have joined the United States in filing the

W.T.O. case, also attended today's talks, Mr. Helin said.

 

But other nations that have previously criticized Europe's position,

including Egypt, did not, he said.

 

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EU, U.S. Talks on Gene-Altered Food Fail; WTO Panel to Get Case

 

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and European Union failed to resolve a

dispute over an EU ban on approvals of gene-modified crops, and the Bush

administration pledged to press ahead with a legal challenge, a U.S.

official said.

 

``We'll be moving forward,'' Richard Mills, a spokesman for the U.S.

Trade Representative said in an e-mailed statement. ``These

consultations have not resulted in any changes to the EU's five-year-old

illegal and unscientific moratorium.''

 

The U.S., Argentina and Canada last month filed a complaint at the World

Trade Organization against the EU refusal to grant new approvals to sell

food that's genetically modified to resist insects and disease. The EU

imposed the moratorium because of health concerns in six of its 15

nations. The talks in Geneva are a prerequisite to a request for

arbitration by a WTO panel.

 

The case, which follows trans-Atlantic disputes over steel tariffs and

the war in Iraq, will have an impact on a world market for biotechnology

that the EU says may grow to $2 trillion by 2010. A U.S. victory would

benefit companies from Monsanto Co. to DuPont Co. to Archer Daniels

Midland Co.

 

The U.S. supplies 70 percent of the world's bio-engineered food, which

is known as GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. Some 80 percent of

U.S. soybeans and one-third of its corn are modified. The EU ban costs

U.S. farmers $300 million a year in lost corn exports to Europe alone,

the American Farm Bureau Federation says.

 

No Basis for Concern

 

The U.S. says there is no basis for the European concern that

gene-altered crops pose a potential health danger. Not a single study to

date has backed up that concern, the U.S. says. Mills said the EU still

has time to back down.

 

``Nothing in our WTO challenge prevents the EU from following through on

their promises to reverse course and end the moratorium,'' he said.

 

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, is pushing

legislation through the European Parliament aimed at stricter labeling

and tracing rules through the food chain for genetically altered crops.

 

The commission is counting on the legislation to encourage the six

opponents -- France, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Austria and Luxembourg --

to stop their objections.

 

The moratorium has blocked approvals for biotechnology crops since

October 1998, including modified canola by Bayer Ag and corn from Dow

Chemical Co. A dozen applications to modify tomatoes, beets and other

crops in the EU are also on hold.

 

The Europeans deny that they have imposed a moratorium.

 

Gene-altered products ``are being considered for approval under relevant

legislation, and each case will be considered on its merits,'' Ignacio

Garcio Bercero, head of the European Commission's dispute division told

reporters after the meeting.

 

Last Updated: June 19, 2003 15:59 EDT

 

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Report Says More Farmers Don't Follow Biotech Rules

 

The New York Times

June 19, 2003

By ANDREW POLLACK

 

A new study, drawn from government data, shows that more farmers are

failing to comply with standards governing the planting of genetically

modified corn than the industry has claimed.

 

Nearly one-fifth of farms growing the main type of genetically

engineered corn, BT corn, are violating government rules aimed at

preserving the usefulness of the corn, a consumer group said yesterday.

 

The group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that 19

percent of the farms growing BT corn did not plant at least 20 percent

of their acres with corn other than the modified variety, as required by

the Environmental Protection Agency. That figure is higher than the 14

percent noncompliance rate reported by the biotechnology industry.

 

" Noncompliance on this scale shows that current regulations aren't up to

the task, " said Gregory Jaffe, author of the report, adding that the

government should stop relying on biotech companies to enforce the

rules.

 

BT corn contains a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium that

causes the plant to produce a toxin that kills the corn borer and some

other pests. But overuse of the crop could result in pests becoming

immune to the BT toxin, which would diminish the effectiveness not only

of the corn, but also of BT sprays widely used as a natural pesticide by

organic farmers.

 

So the E.P.A. requires farmers to plant 20 percent of their corn acres

with non-BT corn, to serve as a refuge for insects that would otherwise

be killed by the toxin.

 

The agricultural biotechnology companies that sell BT corn seeds have

monitored compliance with a telephone survey.

 

But the center received its data from the Agriculture Department under a

freedom-of-information request. The data was for three states - Iowa,

Minnesota and Nebraska - that account for about half of all the BT corn

grown in the nation. About 19 percent did not plant a large enough

refuge, with 13 percent planting no refuge at all, the data showed.

 

One reason for the discrepancy was that the industry surveyed only large

farms. The center also looked at small farms, which had a higher rate of

noncompliance.

 

Lisa Dry, a spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization,

dismissed the significance of noncompliance by small farms, saying those

farms account for only 8 percent of the BT corn grown.

 

Mr. Jaffe of the consumer group underscored the importance of having

refuges close to BT corn, the reason the requirement is for each farm,

not for each county.

 

An E.P.A. spokesman said the agency was evaluating the report.

 

Another report released yesterday by an activist group said that there

had been almost 40,000 field tests of genetically modified crops

authorized by the Agriculture Department from 1987 to 2002. The report,

by the United States Public Interest Research Group, said that the

Agriculture Department had acted as a rubber stamp, rejecting only 3.5

percent of the applications, usually because they were incomplete or had

minor paperwork errors.

 

The report also said that in an increasing number of field trials -

nearly 70 percent last year - the identity of the gene being put into

the crop was not publicly disclosed because it was considered

confidential business information.

 

David Hegwood, special counsel to the agriculture secretary, said in an

interview that the current rejection rate was 8 percent and that the

department gave robust scrutiny to trials.

 

In yet another development related to genetically modified crops, the

Bush administration gave signs of pulling away from a proposed

requirement that companies notify the Food and Drug Administration

before putting a new genetically modified crop on the market. Right now,

consultation with the F.D.A. is voluntary, though the agency and

companies say it is always done.

 

The proposal was made in January 2001 in the final days of the Clinton

administration. But Lester Crawford, deputy F.D.A. commissioner, told

Congress on Tuesday that the regulation was " not a pressing public

health priority " because the voluntary system was working.

 

The mandatory notification was favored by biotechnology companies, which

thought it would improve consumer confidence in the regulation of

biotech foods. Opponents of such foods had mixed feelings, saying the

proposed regulation was an improvement but did not go far enough in

ensuring F.D.A. scrutiny.

 

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If you would like to comment on this News Update, you can do so at the

forum section of our web site at: http://www.thecampaign.org/forums

 

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