The United States' challenge to the European Union in the WTO courts over Genetically Modified Organisms primarily presents a threat to African and developing countries' food sovereignty and the Biosafety Protocol, the director-general of the Ethiopian-headquartered Environmental Protection Authority, Dr Tewolde Egziabher, said. (See below)
Dr Tewolde Egziabher,
Director-general of the Ethiopian-headquartered Environmental Protection Authority
He said those in African countries who had fought long and hard for the agreement and ratification of the Biosafety Protocol, felt that the US actions were intended to send a strong and aggressive message to them: "that should we choose to implement the Protocol and reject the import of GM foods, we may also face the possibility of a WTO challenge."
"We cannot help but perceive that (the) US actions are a pre- emptive strike on the Biosafety Protocol and developing country interests," Tewolde added.
The Protocol is due to come into effect on September 11, coinciding with the WTO's 5th Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
At Cancun, the US/EU GM debate is expected to be high on the agenda.
Part of the US argument for forcing the EU to accept GM without any kind of labelling restrictions, is that the EU rejection creates hunger in the developing world.
"Supposedly, we would willingly grow GM crops if we weren't afraid of losing our lucrative European markets.
"But this premise is untrue. The only African country to support the WTO challenge was Egypt, who soon retracted support on the grounds of consumer and environmental concerns.
"Developing countries, and African countries in particular, do not want to grow GM crops uncritically and without the due process of their regulatory systems approving them.
"They will not have their crops contaminated by GM crops, for many reasons other than market access to Europe.
"The one important consideration is safety to human health, domestic animals and the environment.
"This can only be assured, as provided by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, only through informed risk assessments and decisions based on the Precautionary Principle," Tewolde asserted.
"Secondly, we reject the patenting of living things, as had been made clear by our negotiations in the WTO.
Otherwise, Article 34 of TRIPs would, in combination with the natural processes of cross pollination, not only contaminate our crops, but also turn our farmers into patent infringers.
"This would remove control of food production into the hands of multinational corporations, thereby wresting away food sovereignty into the hands of these companies.
"Besides paying royalties, we would lose food sovereignty," Tewold stated.
He added that developing world agriculture systems were adapted to their geography, economy and culture, and GM farming systems that required capital and chemicals threatened the continent's agriculture and food security.
"Ethiopia is strongly against the hasty introduction of GM crops, for, as a centre of origin and diversity of crops, we recognise the assets that come from a biologically diverse, locally adapted, small- scale agriculture.
"This is why African nations have fought so hard for the Biosafety Protocol, which can provide us with a legal basis on which to protect our own food sovereignty.
"We suspect that Africa is high on the agenda for the US' next push for GM acceptance. And we resent the way that the stereotyped image of the hungry in developing countries has been used to force a style of agriculture that will only exacerbate problems of hunger and poverty.
"The arguments that the EU must give up its right to label, or even reject GM, because of the developing countries must stop.
"We have the right to implement the Biosafety Protocol, and we must do so without delay."
Tewolde was one of the architects of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
I-Net Bridge
source: http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1426361-6078-0,00.html 12sep03
Tewolde Egziabher was born in 1940, graduated in 1963 from the University of Addis Ababa and took a doctorate from the University of Wales in 1969.
He went back to the University of Addis Ababa and was Dean of the Faculty of Science from 1974-78. From 1978-83 he was keeper of the National Herbarium, from 1983-91 President of Aswara University and from 1991-94 Director of the Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat. Since 1995 he has been General Manager of the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia, which is effectively Ethiopia's Ministry of the Environment.
During the 1990s Tewolde put much of his energy into the negotiations at the various biodiversity related fora, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In this time he built up a strong group of well prepared African negotiators who began to take the lead in the G77 and China group. This effectively began to change the geo-political balance of power in the negotiations: Africa came out with united, strong, progressive positions (such as no patents on living materials and the recognition of community rights). This influenced and strengthened the G77 and China's negotiating positions.
Tewolde was instrumental in securing recommendations from the OAU encouraging African countries to develop and implement community rights, biosafety legislation, a common position on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), and a clear stance against patents on life. Tewolde also guided the drafting of the OAU model legislation for community rights and biosafety, which is now used as the common basis for all African countries.
At the 1999 biosafety negotiations in Cartagena, Colombia, Tewolde was the spokesperson for the majority of the G77 countries, called The Like-Minded Group. These negotiations ended in a deadlock, but reached a successful conclusion in Montreal in January 2000. Tewolde's leadership of the Like-Minded Group in the negotiations played a key role in achieving an outcome - against strong USA and EU opposition - that protects biosafety and biodiversity and respects traditional and community rights in developing countries.
Contact:
Tewolde Gebre Egziabher
Environmental Protection Authority
PO Box 30231
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel. +251 118 6197
Fax. +251 161 0077
source: http://www.egroups.co.jp/message/gm-agro/392 12sep03
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