Critics are warning that the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety that took effect last year to govern trade in genetically modified seed is a potential minefield for exporters that can be used to block trade.
Following a recent panel discussion held during the Grain Growers of Canada annual meeting, GGC president Ken Bee urged the Canadian government not to sign on unless significant changes are made.
“It’s very scary for me as a producer,” the southern Ontario soybean producer said.
“What I see coming out of the BSP (biosafety protocol) is the ability of countries to put up new non-tariff trade barriers.”
Read Also
Federal government supports soil health strategy
Sophie Beecher, director general at Agriculture Canada, said at a soil conference in Winnipeg that the feds support the idea of a national soil health strategy.
Earlier, the former chair of the international committee that created the protocol had urged Canada to sign if for no other reason than to strengthen the country’s ability to negotiate changes to the protocol. It is administered from the United Nations’ environmental commission office in Montreal.
“It is important that Canada be a party to the protocol because you can then influence what happens,” said Philemon Yang, Cameroon’s high commissioner to Canada. He noted that even though Canada is not a signatory, it has to abide by the rules if it wants to ship to countries that have signed.
“This is an important protocol, for the first time creating globally accepted rules on transporting of GMOs.”
More than 100 countries have signed the UN protocol, but only one of them is a major GM crop producer.
The agreement, which calls GM seeds living modified organisms, or LMOs, is designed to give countries that import grain, oilseeds and special crops the right to demand information about whether the incoming shipment might contain LMOs, how much and with what risk.
Yang said countries can use the “precautionary principle” to say no, even if there is no definitive scientific evidence of risk.
Ann Tutwiler, chief executive of the Washington-based International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council, said the protocol is filled with uncertainties, vague definitions and the potential to add costs and barriers to trade. She said the United States, which is the largest producer of LMOs, will not sign as it is written.
“You are injecting a lot more risks and costs into the system,” she said.
Of the four major LMO traders, only Brazil has signed. The U.S., Canada and Argentina have not.
Blair Coomber, Agriculture Canada’s director general of the trade file, suggested Canada will not be signing anytime soon. A series of meetings are planned for 2005, including continued negotiations on sensitive issues such as labelling requirements and testing.
He said Canada wants “more work and more clarity” on issues such as labelling requirements and thresholds for the inadvertent presence of LMOs in supposedly LMO-free shipments.
“We need clear and uniform understanding of the rule.”
