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.