The US war on biosafety: renewed aggression by a rogue state
2003
This document explores US actions on GMO trade and argues that the US is attempting to obstruct the comprehensive labeling and traceability legislation that is expected to replace the current moratorium. Even more significant, they state, is the US attempt to link the EU’s GMO restrictions to growing resistance among developing countries to genetically engineered (GE) crops.Greenpeace state that the US is targeting the countries in the South, by using the WTO's trade rules to force Southern countries' integration into a ‘World Transgenic Order’ dominated by agro-chemical corporations. But, they argue, instead of increasing acceptance of GMOs, the US global war on farmers, consumers and the environment is consolidating both the global rejection of GE crops and the global consensus on biosafety.With the 5th WTO Ministerial taking place in Mexico, and coinciding with the coming into force of the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, the paper concludes that there is a critical opportunity for governments in the South to speak out against the threat posed by GE crops. The contamination of Mexican corn with US GE corn is the first case of contamination in a center of diversity. These are precisely the adverse effects of GMOs on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity that the Protocol is designed to prevent. The case of GE maize contamination in Mexico must, the paper argues, be seen as absolute proof that biosafety must be enforced over and above free trade rules, and has the potential to become the defining battle in ending the US global war on farmers, consumers and the environment.
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