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Media Release
For Immediate Release:
Thursday 2nd December 1999
SOUTHERN COUNTRIES MUST
FIGHT BIOTECH STITCH-UP
Friends of the Earth
International (FOEI), the world’s largest
independent environmental network with groups
in more than 65 countries is calling on
Southern governments at the WTO to resist
including biotechnology products and GM food
and crops in the Millennium Round.
The US and EU are
discussing a WTO Working Party on
biotechnology to be agreed at this
Conference. FOEI representatives from
Southern countries warn that this will be the
‘foot in the door’
for biotechnology
and GM to be included in WTO trade rules.
This will damage the right of countries to
regulate the import of biotechnology on
health, environmental or social grounds and
threaten their food security.
Most GM agricultural and
food products are produced by Northern
countries such as the US, EU, and Japan. This
will mean increased market access for such
products into Southern country markets and
increase farmer and consumer dependence on
Northern biotech giants. The production of GM
food and crops requires capital-intensive
agricultural methods and will tend to exclude
small farmers from their landholdings.
The risks of GM foods and
products to ecological diversity and human
health remain unclear. Laboratory tests
cannot replicate the wider environmental
conditions under which GMOs will be
reproduced. But the precautionary principle,
which should cover trade in GMOs is not
properly recognised by WTO rules.
Commenting, Alberto
Villareal of FOE Uruguay said:
‘The WTO is not the proper
body to regulate trade in biotechnology and
GMOs. This should be done under the proposed
UN Biosafety Protocol. We call on our friends
and colleagues in Southern country
delegations at the WTO to resist this
arrogant stitch-up by the EU and US and their
backers in the biotech multi-nationals.’
CONTACT:
Gerard Coffrey Accion
Ecologica FOE Ecuador (206) 953-6184
Emmanuel Agyapong FOE
Ghana (206) 953-9433
Ryan Hunter FOE Slovakia
(206) 953-4465
Alberto Villareal REDES
FOE Uruguay (206) 953-9287
Miguel Lovera
Sobrevivencia FOE Paraguay (206) 953-6854
Vice Yu Legal Rights and
Natural
Resources Center FOE
Philippines (206) 953-9178
Chowdhury MF FOE
Bangladesh (206) 953-6854
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