1.US rice exporters face new costs
2.Tougher controls on US rice imports welcomed

Extract: The decision follows the detection of a herbicide-resistant strain – which is illegal in the EU – in rice certified GM-free by the US, and indicates that Brussels has lost confidence in Washington's testing methods. (item 1)
---

1.US rice exporters face new costs
By Andrew Bounds in Brussels
Financial Times, October 19 2006
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/79931422-5f8a-11db-a011-0000779e2340.html

Exporters of US rice are to be hit by new charges as the European Union widens its clampdown on genetically modified food.

The European Commission said on Thursday that on Monday it would ask national food safety experts to require mandatory testing of all imports of US long-grain rice at EU ports after talks on an agreed testing regime broke down.

The decision follows the detection of a herbicide-resistant strain – which is illegal in the EU – in rice certified GM-free by the US, and indicates that Brussels has lost confidence in Washington's testing methods.

In August, the Commission tightened rules governing imports of US long-grain rice after finding the LL Rice 601 strain in a batch already checked by US authorities. It has since been found in nine of the EU 25 countries.

"If a consignment is certified as free of LL Rice 601, [then] before it can be released, it will be counter-tested by the authorities," a Commission spokesman said. "Only if the counter-test confirms the absence of LL Rice 601 or any other unauthorised GMO, would it be released."

The tests, costing exporters several hundred euros at least, would also look for a strain known as LL Rice 62, detected recently in France.

A fortnight ago the EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou began negotiating a common sampling protocol with Washington, but talks ended on Thursday without agreement.

"Despite extensive discussions between both sides, the Commission and the United States were unable to agree on such a protocol," his spokesman said. It is understood that the US wanted higher acceptable levels of GM strains than Brussels.

While the Commission said LL Rice 601 was produced by Bayer, the German chemical company told Reuters news agency it was not.

The strain was developed by Aventis CropScience, a company it acquired in 2002. Development ended the year before, the company said.

Europe's Food Safety Authority has initially ruled there is no threat to human health from the GM rice. However, all biotech rice remains illegal in the EU.

Only a few strains of GM crops have been approved for cultivation or consumption in the EU because some countries, such as Austria, and many consumers are opposed to them.

Katharine Mill, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, welcomed the move. "We congratulate the EU for not agreeing to weaker US testing measures," she said.

However, she pointed out that Brussels has not taken any action against Chinese imports. Greenpeace found the BT63 strain of rice, which has not been approved for commercial use anywhere, in Chinese products on supermarket shelves in Germany in August.

"European rice growers are worried about the seeds getting out and contaminating their crops," she said.
---

2.Friends of the Earth welcomes tougher controls on US rice imports
19 October 2006.

Brussels, 19th October - Friends of the Earth Europe has welcomed the European Commissionís proposals announced today that all rice imports from the United States should be tested for genetically modified material before they are allowed into the EU.

Reacting to the European Commissionís statement today [1], Adrian Bebb from Friends of Earth Europe said, "Friends of the Earth Europe welcomes the move by the European Commission to propose tougher controls against imports of contaminated rice from the US. This is absolutely necessary since there have now been almost eighty cases of contamination across Europe in the past six weeks."[2]

But the environmental campaign group has warned that contamination with genetically modified material is likely wherever outdoor experimental trials are conducted. Indeed, rice products imported from China have already been found to be contaminated with an illegal genetically modified variant.[3] Friends of the Earth Europe has demanded that the new strict protocols are extended to all crops imported from countries that test genetically modified crops outdoors.

"Compulsory testing of all foods imported from countries that experiment with genetically modified crops outdoors should urgently be introduced. This includes imports from China. Chinese rice has already been shown to be contaminated, although the European Commission has so far failed to take action and prioritises its trading relationship with China over protecting consumers," Mr Bebb added.

For more information, please contact:

Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe: Tel:+32 25 42 61 05, Mobile: +32 485 930515, Email: [email protected]

Adrian Bebb, GM Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe: Tel: +49 802 599 1951, Mobile: +49 1609 4901163, Email: [email protected]

Notes:

[1]Attention: long link may be broken, please copy and paste both lines into browser: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1437&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

[2] http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/rice_contamination.htm

[3] http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2006/AB_5_Sept_China_rice.html

Go to a Print friendly Page

Email this Article to a Friend

Back to the Archive