Bush Speaks at BIO Conference and 
EU Counters His Words as "Simply Not True" 

Bush Steps Up Pressure on EU Over Biotech Food 

GEOFF DYER / Financial Times (UK) 24jun03

WASHINGTON—President George W. Bush yesterday stepped up the pressure on the European Union to overturn its ban on genetically modified organisms.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (Bio) in Washington, Mr Bush said European governments had blocked the import of biotechnology crops "based on unfounded and unscientific fears".

As a result, many African nations were afraid to use GM crops for fear that they would not get access to European markets. "For the sake of a continent threatened by famine, I urge European nations to end their opposition to biotechnology," he added.

His comments formed part of a co-ordinated campaign from the Bush administration to promote GM foods and crops in the face of a growing transatlantic dispute.

At an international conference on agricultural technology sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, which began yesterday in Sacramento, California, US officials were expected to emphasise the benefits of genetically engineered agriculture to the developing world. Officials from more than 100 nations were to attend the three-day meeting.

Following several years of sparring over the GM issue, the US said last week it would issue a formal complaint at the World Trade Organisation over the EU ban. The EU imposed a moratorium on the farming and import of GM foods and grains in 1998 because of safety concerns. However, officials have been working on a system of labelling GM foods so that European customers can choose whether to buy them.

President Bush has argued that as well as discriminating against US-produced crops, the ban was influencing other countries to oppose genetically modified organisms (GMOs), especially in the developing world.

Last year, several southern African countries rejected GM food aid from the US despite suffering severe food crises.

On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Sacramento to protest against the US government's energetic promotion of GM crops, which they said would damage small farmers in poor countries and were being pushed by the administration to satisfy its corporate backers.

Ann Veneman, agriculture secretary, said the conference would examine farming methods to help developing countries cut hunger by 2015, a goal set by agriculture secretaries at the world food summit last year.

"What we're talking about is increasing food productivity in areas of the world where people are both hungry and poor," she said. "Many developing countries get 90 per cent of their food from local production and there isn't any infrastructure."

To bolster the case for GM crops at the Washington conference, Bio invited a group of African scientists and farmers to talk about the benefits of biotechnology to agriculture in their region.

Florence Wambugu, president of Kenya's Harvest Biotech Foundation, said: "Africa missed the green revolution and it must not miss the biotech revolution. Africa urgently needs agricultural biotechnology, including transgenic crops, to improve food production."

African governments and scientists wanted biotech crops, despite the "gross misinformation and political manoeuvring" of anti-biotech activists, she said, and 12 African countries were introducing biosafety laws to prepare for their planting.

However, speaking at a conference in Washington last week, Amadou Kanoute, regional director of the African office of Consumers International, said the spread of US biotechnology crops would put small-scale African farmers at a disadvantage.

E.U. Counters Bush Biotech Comments

REUTERS 24jun03

'Suggestions made by the United States are simply not true'

BRUSSELS, Belgium—President Bush got it wrong when he said the European Union's rejection of genetically modified (GM) food had aggravated the risk of famine in Africa, an E.U. spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The suggestions made by the United States are simply not true," European Commission spokesman Gerassimos Thomas told a daily news briefing, adding that the 15-nation E.U. handed out seven times more development aid than the United States.

The latest war of words in the long-running biotech dispute came on the eve of an E.U.-U.S. summit in Washington on Wednesday when the world's two biggest economies hope to mend diplomatic fences after falling out over Iraq. "It is false that we are antibiotechnology or antideveloping countries," Thomas said.

Bush told a biotechnology conference on Monday the E.U. should lift its restrictions on GM foods "for the sake of a continent threatened by famine."

Last year, some African countries rejected U.S. food aid as it contained GM grain which they feared could be used as seed which might threaten future exports to the E.U. which is setting tight restrictions on imports of GM food. The E.U. has rejected U.S. calls to reassure developing countries that they should accept GM organisms which are routinely eaten by U.S. citizens but are practically banned in many E.U. countries.

The United States, Argentina and Canada, which grow 95 percent of the world gene-altered crops, have launched a trade suit against the E.U.'s unofficial ban on most GM crops which has hampered GM exports to the bloc for the last five years.