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US Backs Off on Trade Tiff With EU on BST Hormone (Rome) Ending a 10-year fight with the European Union over BST, a hormone that increases milk output when injected into dairy cows, the U.S. said here this week that it would no longer insist that Codex Alimentarius declare the substance is safe to use. After a decade of attempting to force Codex, an international body that sets standards for food additives, to adopt the U.S. view that Bovine Somatotropin (BST) poses no health risks to humans or cattle, the U.S. said no consensus existed on the U.S. proposal and asked that no standard be adopted. The U.S. action has wide ranging implications for U.S. trade policy, the operation of Codex and the future of Monsanto, Inc., the company most prominent in marketing the growth hormone. A decade ago, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) promised the drug industry to obtain Codex approval of BST as safe, an action that would open world-wide markets for the hormone. Twice during this decade the U.S. pushed BST and other growth hormones onto the Codex agenda, forcing a vote in the standards setting body that traditionally decides scientific issues by consensus. The procedure for voting had been used only once before in the 37 year history of Codex. The U.S. lost both votes by narrow margins, emphasizing the absence of a consensus, in balloting that caused great tension among country delegates and disappointment to industry representatives on the floor of the Codex meeting as members of the U.S. delegation. The U.S. position was strongly opposed by the European Union (EU) where the use of BST is banned. Support among other nations has been dwindling as a result of the conflict in Codex, with Canada recently deciding to withhold approval of BST. The U.S. move to withdraw its decade-long promise to the drug industry came as a surprise to the U.S. delegation and to the countries attending the Codex meeting. In public discussion of the U.S. positions to be taken at Codex, neither USDA nor FDA hinted at a possible change in U.S. policy on BST. Prior to the Codex meeting, the organization was considering changes in its charter and rules of procedure to adopt positions on scientific questions through majority vote, dropping consensus as the operating concept. The change in the U.S. position means that the U.S. has bowed to growing concern among Codex member countries that the U.S. behavior is heavy handed. The shift also appears to be a gesture on the part of the U.S. toward the EU where consumer resistance to U.S. food policy has created a white-hot political storm. The EU has rejected U.S. corn and soybeans which are grown from genetically modified (GM) seeds, and his adopting labeling requirements to distinguish between processed foods that contain GM ingredients and those that do not. The U.S. has threatened to punish the EU by raising tariffs on European exports, a step that would launch a trade war that could quickly spread. In recent days the US has taken several steps to ease these tensions. USDA Secretary Glickman is on a peace mission to the French government, and President Clinton has proposed that the Organization for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD) conduct a year-long story of food safety issues that threaten global trade. All of this is sad news for Monsanto and the drug industry, however. Six months ago the Clinton administration was Monsanto's greatest advocate in discussions with EU officials, an advocacy that led some critics to complain that USDA should be renamed the Department of Monsanto. Lacking a declaration of safety by Codex, the U.S. will be unable to initiate trade actions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the EU and other countries that ban the use of BST and other hormones. |
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