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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>nachfolgend nen wirklich interessanter
artikel; nebenbei, sabine: gab es schon eine positive rückmeldung zu deiner
anfrage über die im auftrag der eu erstellte studie, welche die empfehlung
'nicht zur veröffentlichung geeignet' erhielt? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>fg in die runde, martin</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>GM
WATCH daily <BR></FONT><A href="http://www.gmwatch.org"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>http://www.gmwatch.org</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>---<BR>Interesting article which suggests that
regardless of whether some EU governments are inching forward on GM crop
acceptance, for the US the economic headache that GM crops represent is only set
to get worse.<BR><BR>The article also makes clear that the US's problems stem
from a determination to deny choice to the consumer, as an USDA official makes
clear, "Labeling is a problem for us primarily because the food companies have
said they don't want to label their brand name products because they think
consumers won't buy them if they do. We have no reason to doubt that would be
the case." <BR>---<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.cropdecisions.com/show_story.php?id=23135"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.cropdecisions.com/show_story.php?id=23135</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>U.S. Expects New EU Biotech Laws To Further Dampen
Ag Trade<BR>Jan. 16, 2004<BR><BR>As the European Union prepares to launch new
laws in April to label and track all genetically modified food, U.S. farmers and
government officials are warning they may turn out to be stronger trade barriers
than the biotech approval ban they are intended to replace. <BR><BR>Only nine
biotech agriculture commodity varieties had been cleared for consumption by the
EU when it shut down the approval process in 1998. That, according to U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick, has cost U.S. exporters "a few hundred million
dollars...a year" in corn sales alone. <BR><BR>The U.S., in comparison, has
approved more than 50, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
<BR><BR>The EU has promised the U.S. for years it would lift its ban on new
biotech crops so long as labeling and record-keeping regulations could be
implemented. <BR><BR>But trade and biotech counselor for the USDA David Hegwood
said the regulations may be impossible to comply with. "What's not clear about
this regulation is whether it's going to require exporters to identify the
specific (biotech traits) in a corn shipment," Hegwood said. "We've got know way
of knowing. We don't know how we're going to deal with that." <BR><BR>USDA Chief
Economist Keith Collins said he expects the impact on U.S. agriculture to be
"significant," but declined to make a precise forecast. "No one knows how the
E.U.'s regulations will be implemented and enforced, thus estimates of economic
impacts (on U.S. exports) are not possible at this point," he said.
<BR><BR>Craig Ratajczyk, director of trade analysis for the American Soybean
Association, said effects are already being felt because European food companies
are replacing traditional U.S. ingredients such as soyoil or corn oil with
alternatives such as palm oil from Malaysia to avoid labeling problems.
<BR><BR><BR>That may be because USDA research shows that even U.S. consumers,
generally considered to be far less concerned about the safety of genetically
modified food, were less willing to buy groceries if they were labeled as
containing biotech ingredients. <BR><BR>Tony Van der hagen, minister counselor
for the European Commission in the U.S. said he expects sales of the biotech
corn-containing food products, allowed into the EU because of their
pre-moratorium approval, will likely suffer when they are forced to bear GMO
labels. <BR><BR>The labels, he said, will be necessary to maintain European
consumer confidence in the food they eat, especially in the years to come as
companies produce pharmaceuticals through genetic manipulation of plants.
<BR><BR>In the event that pharmaceutical-growing plants ever got mixed with food
or feed varieties, the ability to trace back the origin of those crops will be
even more critical, Van der hagen said. <BR><BR>U.S. farm groups say they would
like to see the U.S. file suit in the World Trade Organization against the new
EU biotech regulations, but Hegwood said the USDA and USTR are still do not know
if they should. <BR><BR>American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman
said he has no doubt that a WTO suit is needed. In a letter to President George
Bush, Stallman complained, "Replacing one non-WTO compliant action with another
non-WTO compliant solution is not acceptable." <BR><BR>If indeed the decision is
made to challenge the new E.U. laws, USDA's Hegwood said the U.S. will move much
quicker than the five years it took to dispute the approval moratorium. The U.S.
continued to hold off on challenging the moratorium, Hegwood said, because of
repeated EU promises to begin approving new biotech commodities again. He said
that mistake will not be made again. <BR><BR>"We always accepted ... that the
moratorium was temporary, it just gone on way too long," he said. "They always
said it was temporary, but (the new laws) are permanent." <BR><BR>Source:
OsterDowJones Commodity News
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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
size=2>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>"Wir brauchen keine
Bio-Terroristen, wenn wir Gentechniker haben."<BR>Independent Science Panel (<A
href="http://www.indsp.org">www.indsp.org</A>; dt.Ü. <A
href="http://www.bukoagrar.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/ISP_GM.pdf">www.bukoagrar.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/ISP_GM.pdf</A>)</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>