from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all:

This week we have some useful analysis of what the WTO ruling is likely to mean for Europe and developing countries. One thing is certain: the ruling has intensified opposition to GM (WTO).

And the WTO is powerless to overcome a major problem of the industry - its inability to produce any useful or desirable products (BIOTECH SLOWDOWN).

Meanwhile, the bitter experience of Bt cotton growers in India triggered a parliamentary walkout on Wednesday (ASIA).

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

WTO
FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
COMPANY NEWS
LOBBYWATCH
BIOTECH SLOWDOWN
PEST MANAGEMENT

Don't forget GM Watch's monthly review is now available in German:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6205 and in Dutch: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6235

So please tell all your German- and Dutch-speaking friends!

------------------------------------------------------------
WTO
------------------------------------------------------------

+ AMERICA'S MASTERPLAN IS TO FORCE GM ON THE WORLD
There's a useful article by John Vidal in The (UK) Guardian about the recent WTO ruling against the EU's GM moratorium. Vidal says that the US intends to bypass European hostility to GMOs by using the ruling to bully developing countries into growing them:

EXCERPT:
Europe, its member states and its consumers all rejected the ruling last week, making the WTO look even more out of touch and incompetent to rule on issues about the environment, health and consumer choice...

In fact, Washington and the US companies are not that bothered by Europe's predictable reaction. Europe has all but dropped off the world's GM map. The companies and the supermarkets know there is little or no demand for GM crops, and that Europe's subsidised farmers are reluctant to alienate the public further by growing them.

It is now clear that the real reason the US took Europe to the WTO court was to make it easier for its companies to prise open regulatory doors in China, India, south-east Asia, Latin America and Africa, where most US exports now go. This is where millions of tonnes of US food aid heads, and where US GM companies are desperate to have access, buying up seed companies and schmoozing presidents and prime ministers.

More than two-thirds of exported US corn now goes to Asia and Africa, where once it went to Europe. As the Monsanto man said this week about the WTO ruling: "Our feeling is that it's important for countries other than the EU to have science-based regulatory frameworks."

Like the tobacco industry, GM companies are now focusing almost exclusively on developing countries...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6243

+ WTO BULLYING MAY BACKFIRE
In an article for The Guardian, Sue Mayer warns that WTO-based "moves to coerce countries and citizens into accepting GM food could backfire":

EXCERPT:
There are now 172 regions and provinces in Europe that have declared themselves GM-free. A recent poll showed that 58% of European citizens are worried about GMOs. Austria and Greece have made defiant statements in response to the report and, in a national referendum last year, the Swiss voted for a five-year moratorium on the commercial growing of GM crops.

Scepticism about GM is not restricted to Europe. All the states in Australia growing oilseed rape have moratoriums on growing, despite federal-level approval for GM oilseed rape. Farmers in Mali have rejected GM crops as an attack on their way of life, and consumer surveys in Russia, China and South Africa demonstrate a lack of appetite for GM products. From this perspective, the WTO's intervention looks set to intensify controversy.

There's more, and some great quotes on the WTO ruling, at: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6251

+ APRIL 8, JOINT INTERNATIONAL GM OPPOSITION DAY
In response to the WTO ruling, 100 international organizations from more than 40 countries are announcing April 8, 2006 as a Joint International GM Opposition Day. The day will feature major public events in several countries to demonstrate continuing global opposition to GM foods and crops. Events are already planned in Poland, Germany, Austria, and the US.

Said Julie Newman, of the Australian Network of Concerned Farmers, "The countries that have adopted GM are facing higher costs and market rejection which is why they want to force the GM problem on other competitive countries. Farmers want to market what consumers want, and it is not GM. Contamination is not controllable and economic loss will occur but it should be the GM companies, not the non-GM farmers, that should be forced to accept the liability for the losses GM crops will cause."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6255

------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD SAFETY
------------------------------------------------------------

+ SUSPICIONS ABOUT GMOs
Why are the French the only nation in the world judged intelligent enough to read the facts of GM food safety research in their newspapers? Le Monde carries an excellent article arguing that "several recent studies effected by