Posted on 15-5-2003

NZ Govt Backing US On GE

Auckland, 14 May 2003: The New Zealand Government should immediately
withdraw its support for the US case to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
over the de-facto genetic engineering (GE) moratorium in Europe. The case
is an attack on the majority of European consumers, who have rejected GE
foods.

The Bush administration today announced the first formal step towards a WTO
challenge against the European Union GE food policy. According to a US
Government press release, confirmed by Wellington, the case has third party
support from the New Zealand Government (1). “It seems ridiculous that our
Government is attacking instead of defending Europe’s right to regulate
their own food and agriculture,” said Greenpeace New Zealand Campaigner
Steve Abel. “All countries are entitled to safe, natural food and have the
right to refuse GE foods and demand mandatory labelling of GE products.”
“Our Government should immediately withdraw from the US case.” “The US
administration is effectively declaring a war on consumers. But it is a
war the US will not win. To launch a WTO case to help the desperate genetic
engineering industry to market its unwanted GE products is an insult to the
European public. Greenpeace strongly condemns this blatant attempt to
bully the European Union and is confident that this will only serve to
reinforce consumer rejection of GMOs, which is the real cause of US loss of
markets,” “The European Union holds the moral high ground defending the
rights of a large majority of its citizens, as opposed to the US
administration, which is using the WTO to defend narrow industry interests
at the expense of the environment and people’s right to choose what they
eat.”

The EU’s powerful response to the US challenge confirms that consumer
rejection is the real reason for GE’s failure in Europe: “It is the lack of
consumer demand for GM products that accounts for the low sales of GMOs in
the EU market,” the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection
David Byrne said (2).

* U.S. and Cooperating Countries File WTO Case Against EU Moratorium on
Biotech Foods and Crops, Washington, May 13, 2003.

* European Commission regrets US decision to file WTO case on GMOs as
misguided and unnecessary, Brussels, 13 May 2003.