Posted on 16-12-2002
How
Green Is PM?
10 December 2002
The Greens are challenging the NZ Prime Minister to tell US
President
George Bush that New Zealand s GE labelling regime is non negotiable
and
will not be watered down for any possible free trade deal.
The Prime Minister leaves for the United States tomorrow and
Green MP Sue
Kedgley said Helen Clark must reassure New Zealanders that the
right to
know what is in the food we eat will not be traded away. The
United States
has already told Australia that a free trade deal is conditional
upon
Australia watering down or removing labelling for genetically
engineered
foods, among other things.
New Zealanders need to know that our fledgling and already weak
GE
labelling regime is in very real danger of being sacrificed
to the great
free trade god, said Ms Kedgley. New Zealand shares its GE labelling
regime
with Australia through the ANZFA body and Ms Kedgley said if
Australia
rolled over on the joint labelling scheme for a free trade deal
New Zealand
would have no option but to withdraw from ANZFA and establish
its own
independent labelling regime. This is a very real possibility,
she said.
The right for people to know
what they are eating is fundamental and the Government must
not trade it
away. Ms Kedgley said she firmly believed the desire to sign
a free trade
deal with the US was the main reason why the Government was
so determined
to lift the moratorium on the release of genetically engineered
organisms
next year.
The United States will use a free trade deal to pressure New
Zealand to
allow GE crops into our environment and to abandon our already
weak GE
labelling regime. The Prime Minister must tell New Zealand now
if she is
prepared to sign away GE labelling to try and secure this deal,
she said.
We challenge the Prime Minister to rule this out now and to
tell the United
States tomorrow that our food is as off limits as our nuclear
free status.
If Helen Clark will not do this then we deserve to be told why
not.
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