Biotech/Trade

[Ian Murray <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

[NYTimes]
June 14, 2003
Trade Pact on Gene-Altered Goods to Take Effect in 90 Days
By ANDREW POLLACK


A new global treaty that imposes restrictions on exports of genetically modified seeds, animals
and crops is set to take effect, injecting a new element into already heated international
disputes over agricultural biotechnology.

The treaty, known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, was agreed upon by more than 130
nations in January 2000 but could not take effect until formally ratified by 50 nations. The
50th, Palau, just gave its endorsement, so the protocol will go into effect in 90 days, on
Sept. 11, the United Nations Environment Program said yesterday.

The treaty allows countries to bar imports of genetically engineered seeds, microbes, animals
or crops that they deem a threat to their environments. It also requires international
shipments of genetically engineered grains to be labeled.

The United States reluctantly agreed to the treaty in 2000 after intense negotiations pitting
it and a handful of other crop-exporting nations against everyone else. While Washington has
not ratified the protocol, American exporters to countries that are parties to the agreement
will have to abide by the rules, a senior State Department official said.

This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the effect of the treaty would
depend on the rules for carrying it out, which have not been written yet. He and others said
that many countries were already putting into place their own rules regulating imports or
requiring labeling of genetically modified products, making the treaty less significant than it
otherwise might have been.

The United States recently filed suit at the World Trade Organization challenging the European
Union's de facto moratorium on approval of new genetically modified crops, arguing it is not
based on sound science. The new treaty contains language that could bolster Europe's case, at
least morally. It allows countries to bar imports of genetically modified products even if
there is not enough information to prove scientifically that the products are dangerous.

Recognizing a potential conflict with W.T.O. rules, the framers of the biosafety treaty were
careful to state that it neither supersedes nor is subordinate to other agreements.

L. Val Giddings, vice president for food and agriculture of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization, a trade group, said the new treaty would have little effect over all and none on
Washington's case against Europe. "There's no way you can possibly read it or construe it that
would allow a trumping of W.T.O. obligations," he said.

Kristin Dawkins, vice president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a nonprofit
group in Minneapolis that opposes genetically modified foods, said the treaty bolstered
opponents of biotechnology because it establishes that genetically modified foods should be
treated differently from other foods.