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The Toronto Star
Wednesday January 26, 2000
Stances toughen at food talks; Canadian-led
group stands firm at meet on gene-altered products
The early optimism at United Nations talks on trade in genetically modified
foods has turned to tension as a Canadian-led group drifted back toward
a hard line.
Canada, which earlier in the week was discussing how a country might
go about blocking imports of genetically modified foods, yesterday returned
to its position questioning the need for such measures.
"I don't even know why we need this," Richard Ballhorn, Canada's
chief negotiator, told a press conference.
Ballhorn said Canada will bargain hard to make sure countries cannot
block trade in genetically modified foods too easily.
"We will be very difficult," Ballhorn said, using much tougher
language than he had earlier in the week.
At question is the so-called precautionary principle, which would give
countries the right to stop imports of genetically modified foods if they
feel there is a risk to health or the environment.
Ballhorn said Canada is willing to include the principle in a deal only
if there are strict limits on when a country can invoke it. As it stands,
he said, the principle is too vaguely worded to be acceptable.
"Go around this hotel and ask people what it means. You can get as
many definitions as there are people," he said. "How do you
apply it in reality?"
He said there may not be time this week to work out a better definition.
"We haven't started dealing with it yet," he said, adding talks
have so far dealt with only the less contentious issue of what commodities
the deal would cover.
He suggested that negotiators set aside the issue in the interest of reaching
a deal, and return to it later in another round.
The Montreal talks are considered a last chance to salvage a deal after
talks were derailed a year ago at a meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, where
negotiations toward a United Nations Biosafety Protocol fell apart over
the same issue.
About 600 people are attending the Montreal talks representing more than
130 countries, with the talks themselves taking place between five groupings
of countries.
Canada heads the Miami Group of major agricultural exporters, including
the U.S., Australia, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, and Ballhorn speaks
for the group.
But a spokesperson for the largest group of countries, the Like Minded
Group of 77 developing nations, said in an interview that Canada's bargaining
position is doomed to failure and could scuttle a deal.
"The precautionary principle should be the basis of the protocol,"
said Imeru Tamrat, a negotiator from Ethiopia, which heads the Like Minded
Group.
Representing more than half the countries at the talks, the Like Minded
Group has the numbers to block any deal. The objections of many of the
same countries helped kill World Trade Organization talks last month in
Seattle.
Tamrat said his group would not sign any deal that does not include the
precautionary principle.
So far, the European Union has supported the Like Minded Group in its
efforts to get a precautionary principle into the protocol. European consumers
have shown a great reluctance to buy genetically modified foods and a
number of companies have refused to sell them.
Against that background, the Miami Group has for the past year resisted
efforts to include the precautionary principle in the protocol, saying
countries should block genetically modified foods only if there is scientific
evidence of a risk.
The Miami Group was also the target of criticism by environmentalists
from member countries, who urged the group to support the precautionary
principle.
Eric Darier of Greenpeace pointed to Ottawa's about-face on financial
aid for National Hockey League teams, and called on Canada to make a similar
turnaround.
He said consumers in the Miami Group of countries are showing increasing
uneasiness toward genetically modified foods.
Darier said the protocol talks are supposed to be about working out a
deal to protect the environment, not about protecting trade, something
he fears the Miami Group has forgotten.
"They seem to be at the wrong conference," he said.
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