July 5, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4,1424

BRUSSELS: New genetically modified (GM) foods may be sold in the European Union for the first time, bringing the 15-nation grouping a step closer to ending a trade row with the United States.

The European Parliament approved two laws on Wednesday that will allow the European Union (EU) to lift its controversial five-year moratorium on approving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and end a union-wide ban on biotech products.

The EU hopes that by lifting its moratorium, it will ease tensions between the EU and other countries, particularly the US, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), which deals with trade rules between nations.

The US has been hoping for the past five years that the EU will lift its moratorium.

The EU’s member states will be able to take action to prevent contamination from GM crops and for tougher labelling of GM food and traceability of crops.

This means that new GM foods can be sold in Europe for the first time in five years, but only if they are clearly labelled. Labels will have to read: “This product is produced from GMOs.”

The decision comes less than a week after a EU-US summit in Washington on June 25, aimed at improving relations between the two blocs after the war in Iraq.

Relations between Washington and its European allies were strained as France and Germany, two of the EU’s most powerful members, refused to back the US-led invasion.

At the summit US President George Bush urged EU leaders to drop their ban on GM foods.

The EU has maintained a freeze on the commercial development of GM foods since 1999, which has angered the US and other GM crop- growing nations. They say they have been deprived of a huge export market in Europe and forced African countries to refuse GM food aid.

The US filed a suit with the WTO last month arguing for the moratorium to be lifted as it was an unfair trade barrier.

However, it is thought the US may not cancel the action, as it regards the GM labelling system as likely to deter customers. Small and medium-sized businesses also complain about the extra bureaucracy involved.

The news of the EU’s vote has not been welcome by the US Washington is of the view that the new labelling requirements will create a new kind of trade barrier with heavy cost implications.

So far the US Administration has not said how it will officially respond after the vote by the parliament.

The American Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the US, has however warned: “With this new labelling and traceability requirement, the EU has only made a bad situation worse.”

It has urged the Bush administration to continue to “aggressively prosecute” the case in the WTO against the EU.

On July 1, members of the European Green Party wrote to US President George Bush to follow in the EU’s footsteps. In a letter, the environment-conscious party wrote:

“The idea behind these laws is both deeply democratic and market oriented; to let people make their own choice. When the laws come into force Europeans will be able to make an informed choice. When they choose a product to buy they will see if it contains GM ingredients or not. Unfortunately, Americans do not have the choice to either eat or avoid GM food. This is a choice that you should give them.”

A spokesman for the US Trade Representative in Washington said that, while the US favours consumer choice, “this information should be non-prejudicial in presentation and feasible for producers to provide.” He said the “proposed new EU labelling rule does not meet this standard.”

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, is desperate to show progress in the face of mounting pressure from the US.

A plan to tighten even further the threshold for labelling GM products — from 0.9 to 0.5 per cent — was averted in return for an amendment that will allow EU member states “to take appropriate measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in other products”.

Civil society groups such as Greenpeace have welcomed the vote, saying that the new rules are a slap in the face for the US, which is doing its best to force feed the world genetically engineered food after heavy lobbying from biotechnology multinational companies such as Monsanto, the world leader in biotechnology crops.

The new rules will now go to the Council of EU Agricultural Ministers, probably before the end of July. If the Council agrees, these will be operational in the autumn of 2003.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.