The bulk of the Canadian grain industry has issued a call for Canada to back away from an agreement aimed at controlling international trade in genetically modified seeds if there is a chance they could undermine the biodiversity of the importing country.
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was negotiated in Montreal in 2000. Canada signed but has not ratified the agreement, which took effect in 2003.
The Canada Grains Council, representing farm groups, grain companies and seed developers, has written federal agriculture minister Bob Speller to warn that the protocol is more likely to be used as anti-trade protectionism than as a genuine attempt to protect the environment.
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The rules for verifying the presence of living modified organisms in bulk shipments are unclear and unworkable, wrote grains council chair Jim Wilson of Agricore United. If Canada ratifies and joins the protocol, it would be liable for inadvertent errors in reporting and the risk of foreign contamination while competitors not signing will not. He said Canada should ratify only if other major exporters do, such as the United States, Australia and Argentina.
At the House of Commons agriculture committee May 5, Grain Growers of Canada executive director Cam Dahl told MPs it would be dangerous for Canada to join the Cartagena system. GGC is a member of the grains council.
“In our analysis, the outcome of the first meeting of the parties (to the protocol) clearly demonstrates a greater desire of parties to impose trade restrictive measures on countries … rather than enhancing biodiversity protection, which is the objective of the protocol,” he said.
Sitting beside Dahl at the table, Greenpeace Canada anti-genetic engineering campaigner Eric Darier, said Canada should show leadership by ratifying the Cartagena agreement.
“I think Canada has much more to lose by staying outside,” he said.
Under the principles of the protocol, exporting countries would have to certify if bulk shipments of grain being sent offshore contain living modified organisms that could escape into the environment of the importer. Misinformation or a failure to inform could make the exporting country liable for damages if there was unwanted contamination.
