Brussels, 18/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 23 April in plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament will discuss an oral question raised by the European Parliament's committee on agriculture regarding the economic consequences of the EU's zero tolerance regime for unauthorised GMOs. This subject is linked to the more general debate on food price rises to be discussed by the EP the day before the plenary.
There are a growing number of incidents in the European Union caused by the adventitious presence of traces of genetically modified crops that are not yet authorised in the EU but have already received approval from major trading partners of the EU. Although importers and stakeholders are acting with due diligence to avoid such incidents, they are likely to recur due to the introduction of new GMO crops in exporting countries and the application in the EU of a zero tolerance regime for the presence of unauthorised GMOs in imported products. This situation, which is growing worse, “is likely to result in ever higher feeding stuff prices in the EU”, the agriculture commission explains.
Given the EU's high import dependency for protein-rich feeding stuffs (soybean meal, corn gluten feed), British Conservative Neil Parish (EPP-ED) asks the Commission on behalf of the EP agriculture committee how the Commission evaluates the consequences of this zero tolerance principle on the competitiveness of the European cattle sector in the short and long term. The Commission is invited to explain the current situation whereby even animal feed not containing traces of unauthorised GMOS are banned, while the meat of animals fed with these unauthorised GMOs can be freely imported into the EU, “thus causing a major distortion of competition to the detriment of European farmers”.
Is the Commission of the opinion that instead of the current zero tolerance regime, a threshold value (as is already the case for the adventitious presence of traces of authorised GMOs for labelling of products as “GMO free”) should be applied for the adventitious presence of traces of unauthorised GMOs that have already obtained a positive assessment from the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) or that have undergone a feed and food safety risk assessment in accordance with the CODEX GM plant guideline? Is the Commission planning to come forward with concrete proposals to that end?
Finally, the agriculture committee asks the European Commission whether it expects the current situation, if left unchanged, to “result in trade disputes with affected exporting countries, which could have negative implications for the export of certain European products?”
Androulla Vassiliou, the new health commissioner, had said during her hearing two weeks ago: “I cannot predict the outcome of the debate launched on zero tolerance policy regarding imports of fodder containing GMOs”. In response to a question by Neil Parish, she had added: “This policy does indeed raise the question of fodder prices for farmers, but we must hold a consultation process as we must also take into account the concerns of citizens and scientific opinion, and then see whether it is necessary to find a balance for partial importation of this fodder”. (L.C.)