from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Our main story this week is Thailand's apparent capitulation to US pressure over the commercialization of GM crops. However, after massive opposition from just about everyone other than US lobbyists, the biotech industry and self-interested local advocates, the Thai government appears to have put the decision on hold, at least until next week.

Meanwhile, the US's tedious pretence that it relies solely on 'sound science' in its GM policy is given the lie by its failed attempt to prevent the EU from calling in scientific evidence in the WTO dispute over the EU's moratorium on GMOs (EURO-NEWS).

Claire [email protected]
www.lobbywatch.org / www.gmwatch.org

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CONTENTS
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THAILAND SPECIAL REPORT
OTHER NEWS FROM ASIA
GM ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS
FOCUS ON AFRICA
EURO-NEWS
FOOD SAFETY
THE AMERICAS
LOBBYWATCH
COMPANY NEWS
DONATIONS

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THAILAND SPECIAL REPORT
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+ THAI GOVT GIVES GREEN LIGHT FOR GM - BUT CABINET STALLS AS OPPOSITION MOUNTS
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on 20 August bestowed the government's blessing on the planting and trading of GM crops by promising to revoke an earlier ban. The ban only permits GM crops to be grown in laboratories for experimental purposes but the revision would allow open planting and commercialisation of GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4242

However, the go-ahead has been stalled by protests. The Cabinet was expected to ratify the policy at its weekly meeting on Tuesday. But after encountering strong opposition from exporters, farmers, environmentalists and consumer groups, the Cabinet put the issue on hold.

Rushing to get their foot in the door, Monsanto on 25 August sent delegates to meet senior officials from the Agriculture Ministry. "The company's representative from Singapore met with me seeking a clear policy on field testing," said Chawanwut Chainuwut, the ministry's deputy secretary-general.

"My reply will depend on the Cabinet," he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4262

+ WHY THE THAI GOVT MADE ITS DECISION
The latest news from Thailand follows the extraordinary trade pressures brought to bear ever since Thailand introduced a modicum of GM food labelling and its moratorium on growing GM crops.

In 2001 the head of the Thai Food and Drug Administration revealed how a visiting US trade delegation had threatened trade sanctions against Thai imports, worth about US$8.7bn a year, if labelling went ahead. The threats to invoke Section 301 of the US trade laws were made during an official visit.
http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=37810&c=1

Then earlier this year, the Thai Environment Minister publicly objected to the US's insisting that Thailand grow GM crops as a condition of a bilateral free trade agreement.
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/service117.htm

Now - surprise, surprise - the Thai Prime Minister says he is going to revoke an earlier ban on the commercial use of GM crops, in defiance of wide opposition.

This is reminiscent of what happened in Sri Lanka after it introduced a ban on GM food in May 2001 in order to allow time for the health risks to be studied. At the time of the announcement, Sri Lanka's Director General of Health Services said that the safety of consumers was paramount and that the ban would remain in place until worldwide concerns about GM foods were settled. After intense pressure from the US and the WTO, however, Sri Lanka's ban was indefinitely postponed.

The Thai PM's embrace of GM seems particularly ironic in the light of Greenpeace's recent exposure of GM contamination of papaya seeds. The seeds, which have been sold to Thai farmers, appear to have been contaminated by GM crop trials carried out at a Thai research station in contravention of the existing ban.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4182

Yet the Prime Minister's response to what is potentially one of the worst cases of GM contamination of a major food crop in Asia, is not to tighten the existing ban but to try and revoke it!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4242

+ BAD-IDEA VIRUS GRIPS THAILAND'S PM
In a Philippines' newspaper, the Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is quoted as saying, "If we (Thailand) don't start [GM] now, we will miss this scientific train and lose out in the world."

The Thai PM's announcement is then described as "a move which may place the Philippines in the 'laggard' category" for GM. The headline of the article says it all: "Thailand may overtake RP [Republic of the Philippines] in biotech race".

But in reality, outside the developing world, GM crops are in serious retreat, as witnessed by Monsanto's recent announcements that it will:
*"defer" all further efforts to introduce GM wheat globally
*stop its GM canola breeding programmes in Australia
*and withdraw its cereal programmes from Europe.

Other GM firms, like Bayer and Syngenta, have suffered similar setbacks. But in the article, a GM supporter is quoted as saying that the Philippines "cannot afford to ignore the growing support for biotechnology from various Asian governments." Among those cited are China, India and Indonesia.

But Monsanto has pulled out of GM in Indonesia, where it is under investigation for corruption, China's political leaders appear ambivalent about going further down the GM route, and India's political leaders are under attack for being in the laggard category!

The GM supporter who is quoted in the article is said to have "lauded the move by the Thai government, saying this will 'send positive signals across Asia...'"

This is an industry that lives by hype and duplicity and the "biotech race" provides Asia's leaders with a handy distraction from the crude realities of US mercantile power and the abysmal failure of governments and international institutions to address the problem of hunger.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4257

+ BIOTECH TRAIN MAY BE PANDORA'S BOX
An excellent article in Thailand's The Nation newspaper by Varoonvarn Svangsopakul of Greenpeace Southeast Asia is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4256

EXCERPT:
When Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced on Friday that Thailand would embrace genetically engineered (GE) crops, he declared that, "The government won't let the country miss the biotechnology train."

The message was clear: Thailand must adopt this new, cutting-edge technology as a matter of national competitiveness. But a closer look at the reasoning behind the National Biotechnology Policy Committee's decision suggests that the government knows very little about this train, or even where it's going.

Take for example Thaksin's claim that the EU is now open to GMOs. Clearly he was trying to reassure Thailand's farmers and food exporters that the introduction of GE crops would not hurt exports. But it's not very reassuring if it isn't true. The EU's de facto moratorium on GMOs remains intact, and approvals of GE crops remain blocked.

Only one GE food crop - Syngenta's Bt11 sweet corn - has slipped through, but Syngenta has now announced that it will not be commercialised. More importantly, the EU's new GMO labelling and 'traceability' laws, requiring comprehensive documentation of all every step, impose the strictest possible limits on unintended GMO contamination in food products - further indicating that consumer rejection of GE food