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friends of the earth
international
11 September 2003
public bite back in gmo trade war.
Stakes were raised today in the Europe-US
trade dispute over genetically modified (GM)
food and farming as a new alliance of civil
society groups pledged to create an
unprecedented mass citizen objection to the
dispute [1].
The organisations involved [2], spanning
more than 140 countries, aim to collect
objections from citizens from all 146 World
Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries, as
a challenge to the WTO's secretive trade
dispute mechanisms.
The groups representing consumers,
environmentalists, farmers, trade unionists
and developing countries, launched their
campaign on the day the United Nations
Biosafety Protocol [3] regulating GM food
worldwide comes into force, September 11,
2003.
The new campaign launched today - `Bite
Back: WTO hands off our food' - invites the
public to make their own legal submissions to
the GM dispute in the form of a citizen's
objection [4], insisting that the WTO must
respect people's right to choose what they
eat and allow them to protect their
environment.
The WTO, currently holding its 5th
Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, promotes its
disputes mechanism as its most individual
contribution to the stability of the global
economy. However it is conducted in secrecy
with no access to the general public. The
`Bite Back` campaign (online at
www.bite-back.org[1]) will directly challenge
this and put the WTO inadequacies in dealing
with food in the public spotlight.
If the WTO deems that the European Union
(EU) is breaking trade rules it will allow
the US to force Europe to approve more GM
foods and crops - or face huge financial
penalties.
The Biosafety Protocol is the first treaty
that officially seeks to protect biological
diversity from the potential risks posed by
GM. It will require all exporters of GM which
are to be released into the environment to
take measures to prevent the contamination of
GM seed products by implementing an `identity
preservation' system. It also allows
countries to take a precautionary approach if
faced with scientific uncertainty over the
impacts on the environment.
Friends of the Earth GMO trade war
campaigner Liana Stupples said: "The US
Administration, lobbied by the likes of
biotech giant Monsanto, is using the
undemocratic and secretive WTO to force feed
the world genetically modified foods. The
public should have the right to decide what
they eat. Decisions about our food should not
be made by the WTO or by Monsanto. It is
clear that the WTO is neither fit nor
independent enough to judge whether or not
the public should eat GM foods."
For more information contact:
Liana Stupples, GMO trade war campaigner
Phone: +52-9981-204564
Alexandra Wandel, WTO and trade expert
Phone: +52-9981-204586
Notes to Editors:
[1] After the US, together with Canada and
Argentina, submitted a complaint to the WTO
over the EU's de facto moratorium on GMOs,
the WTO established a panel on 29 August. The
US and EU are now preparing their
submissions. A verdict is expected for spring
2004.
[2] The campaign was launched by Friends of
the Earth International with support of Jose
Bove's Confederation Paysanne, Vandana
Shiva's Research Foundation for Science,
Technology Ecology, Lori Wallach's Public
Citizen, the trade union network Public
Services International, the International
Gender and Trade Network and more
[3] information on the Biosafety Protocol
at:
www.foeeurope.org/biteback/download/factsheet_biosafety_protocol.pdf
[4] The citizen's objection is a legal
submission to the WTO. In general there is
great resistance by WTO Members to
intervention of non-members in their
disputes.
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