Lamy backs African stance on GM aid

Bloomberg - December 02 2002

Johannesburg - The European Union (EU) would not persuade African
governments to accept donations of
genetically modified (GM) foodstuff, EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy
said yesterday, rejecting a US complaint
that its stance was worsening starvation.

"Our policy is very different from US policy," Lamy said. "There is no
way we are going to change it just for the sake
of being nice to the Americans."

As many as 14.4 million people in southern Africa need food aid because
of grain shortages, according to the UN
Food Programme. Zambia and Zimbabwe have refused donations of US maize
that includes GM grain.

The EU's support of their stance might worsen the famine, US deputy
secretary for international trade Grant
Aldonas said last month.

Lamy, speaking in Johannesburg after visiting four southern African
nations (including Zambia) to discuss trade,
said he did not ask them to accept GM grain, though he would not
discourage them either.

The EU buys food for aid on local markets rather than donating from its
own stocks.

"If the country takes the decision that they want to take a risk in this
direction, fine, it's up to them," he said. "But
we're not going to take the decision."

Zambia, where about 2 million people face famine, rejected donations of
US maize in August.

A third of US maize is genetically modified to resist pests and plant
diseases. The US, the world's largest maize
grower, does not require the modified crops to be segregated.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have said genetic material from modified maize might
spread to other plants, damaging
exports because of consumer protection in some markets, including the
EU.

The US has pledged almost half the 1 million metric tons of food aid the
region will need.

The EU's refusal to help persuade those governments to accept US food
aid meant "more people are going to die",
Aldonas said last month.

Lamy said Aldonas's comment was an "abuse" of the situation for
political ends. "This is not acceptable," Lamy
said. "We understand their policy and they have to understand ours."

The EU has a moratorium on authorising GM products. The US said it might
complain to the World Trade
Organisation that the ban constituted an impediment to free trade by
preventing companies from exporting their
products to the EU's member states.

"I am not aware of any complaint," Lamy said. "Everybody knows the
commission's position, which is that this
moratorium must stop. And my sense is that we are nearly there." -
Bloomberg