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Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) February
23, 2004
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Don´t let the U.S. Coalition water down
the Biosafety Protocol!
United Nations (UN) talks on Genetically
Modified Organisms (GMO), called the
“Biosafety Protocol”, started today in Kuala
Lumpur. Friends of the Earth International is
calling on all Parties of the UN GMO Treaty
to adopt strict rules to protect citizens
worldwide from the risks derived from GMOs.
The main obstacle is the U.S. Government and
its GMO producer allies: Argentina and
Canada. These countries are promoting weak
standards that will deny consumers the right
to know what’s in their food and will not
adequately protect citizens and the
environment from risks.
Juan López of Friends of the Earth
International commented:
“The US is again boycotting a multilateral
agreement and is trying to impose its own
standards on the rest of the world. The
experience with GM crops in the last ten
years shows that their safety cannot be
ensured, and they have created serious new
problems like genetic contamination. The
world urgently needs an international law to
make biotech polluters pay.”
Friends of the Earth advocates that any
biotech corporation or entity releasing GMOs
into the environment should be strictly
liable in case any damage happens to the
environment, human health, or the livelihoods
of citizens and farmers. While damage from
GMOs is already occurring today, and the
majority of developing countries consider it
absolutely necessary to create an
international liability regime, the U.S,
Canada and Argentina as the main GMO
producers, adamantly oppose such a
regime.
Also, products containing GMOs should be
clearly identified and labelled in order to
guarantee the consumer right to choose. But
again, U.S. led coalition opposes these
measures and is using bilateral agreements to
make countries agree on weak labelling
standards. Mexico, a Party to the Biosafety
Protocol has already signed with the U.S. and
Canada an agreement which would not allow
Mexican citizens to know whether there are
GMOs in the food. The U.S has already
approached other countries like Japan, China
and South Korea to convince them to have weak
labelling standards.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
:
6 Metre high GMO corn cob and citizens greet
officials arriving at Global GMO treaty
meeting: Monday 8am Putra Centre Kuala
Lumpur.
For more information contact in
Kuala Lumpur:
Shao Loong, Friends of the Earth Malaysia,
Tel: +60126199234
Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth Africa,
Tel: +60162800642
Juan Lopez, Friends of the Earth
International, Tel: +60-123952149
Liana Stupples, Friends of the Earth
England, Wales, Northern Ireland
Karin Nansen, Friends of the Earth South
America, Tel: +60176570826
Geert Ritsema, Friends of the Earth
Europe,Tel: +60176570825
Julio Sanchez, Friends of the Earth in
CentralAmerica, Tel: +60176570826
Background information
FoEI
briefing. The Battle for Global Biosafety:
Don´t let the U.S. Coalition water down the
Biosafety Protocol.
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