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EU OKs biotech traits, while proposing opt-out provision

 

 

By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

 

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — The European Union (EU) has approved 10 new biotechnology traits and renewed seven others, while also proposing a program that would allow any of its 28 member countries to "opt out" of genetically modified (GMO) food and feed imports.

Among the traits approved are those for corn, soybeans, canola, rapeseed and cotton. The approvals are for 10 years and the traits will join the 58 already authorized in the EU, the European Commission said.

Some of the traits had been waiting several years for acceptance by the EU. The delay may be attributed in part to "the standard situation of EU regulatory slowness," said Nathan Fields, director of biotechnology for the National Corn Growers Assoc. The process was also held up as the EU worked on the opt-out program, he added.

By opting out, EU countries could ignore scientific evidence showing the safety of GMO food and feed and refuse to accept their import, stated the office of U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The United States exported a record high $155.1 billion in agricultural products worldwide in 2014, the office said. Those exports supported more than 1 million American jobs.

The process of opting out would require member countries to document their justifications for making the request, Fields explained. The bottom line is that countries will be allowed to refuse import of GMO food and feed.

"Having to deal with all the member states is more difficult," he said. "There are varied opinions in the EU regarding GMOs. It’s a very difficult market to export to. From our perspective, we’d prefer a more functioning, cohesive union."

The opt-out program is just a proposal, he stated. The EU will study the idea and look at such things as its economic impact before a final decision is made. The EU announced both the opt-out program and the GMO approvals last month.

"It was a one step backward, one step forward kind of news," Fields said. "We just hope that now that they’re looking at the opt-out program, we don’t want them to put another freeze on GMO approvals while the (opt-out) program works its way through their regulatory process. We don’t want them to use it as an excuse to not approve anything new."

This proposal would complicate the export process with the EU, said Floyd D. Gaibler, director of trade policy and biotechnology for the U.S. Grains Council.

"(The plan) is totally contradictory to the principles and goals of the EU," he stated. "Its objectives have been to have a single market. We fail to see how this will add to the goal of speedy reviews.

"It’s just a very perplexing and unnecessary element and it’s going to make it difficult to try to resolve the underlying problems with the approval process."

Those current problems aren’t about the science, Gaibler said, but rather with the EU’s inability to meet its regulatory and legislative mandates on the amount of time it takes for approvals to occur.

Richard Wilkins, first vice president of the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA), said his organization has "guarded optimism" about the EU’s announcement approving the traits.

"On the one hand, we’re happy to see these traits finally receive Commission approval after years of delay," he said. "Whenever our technology partners bring a new trait to market, farmers in the U.S. aren’t able to fully recognize the benefits of products with those traits until they are accepted in all of our key export markets, so this is a big, big step forward.

"On the other hand, however, this announcement means little if the EU persists in its current unscientific and delayed approval process for new varieties developed through biotechnology."

More than 40 additional GMO applications for import remain pending in the EU system, he said.

In response to the EU’s opt-out plan, Froman said he was disappointed in a proposal that "appears hard to reconcile with the EU’s international obligations. Moreover, dividing the EU into 28 separate markets for the circulation of certain products seems at odds with the EU’s goal of deepening the internal market."

The ASA also takes issue with the opt-out plan. "We believe that if that proposal is adopted, it would be in clear violation of the EU’s obligations under the World Trade Organization and would negatively impact U.S. soy exports to Europe," Wilkins said.

"Again, anytime we see the progress of modern agricultural biotechnology furthered by an approval for import in a foreign market, that’s a step forward, and our farmers benefit. But on the whole, this week has shown that we still have a long way to go in Europe."

5/6/2015