WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – A coalition of small farm and anti-pesticide groups wants the U.S. Senate to reject the White House choice for chief agricultural trade negotiator because of his work with large chemical companies.
Islam “Isi” Siddiqui, who held senior posts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in former U.S. president Bill Clinton’s administration, has been a vice-president at CropLife America since 2001.
CropLife represents companies that produce pesticides and genetically modified crops, including BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta.
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“The U.S. negotiating position … has been very much to push a pro-free trade, pro-technology, pro-biotech, pro-pesticide approach on an international level,” said Katherine Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition.
“Appointing somebody like Siddiqui to be the chief trade negotiator in our view enforces that the agenda is not going to change very much.”
The Pesticide Action Network, the Organic Consumers Association, the Center for Food Safety and the Farmworker Association of Florida also oppose the nomination.
Siddiqui was a registered lobbyist only from 2001-03, White House spokesperson Ben LaBolt said, noting he has extensive scientific and policy experience working for California’s agriculture department and the USDA.
“He spent 32 years in public service, fully 80 percent of his career.”
Large, mainstream farm groups have written to the committee to support Siddiqui’s nomination, citing his scientific background and experience in technical trade issues.
Many thorny agricultural trade issues concern highly technical issues. U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk has said he will step up enforcement of trade deals with a particular focus on technical barriers.
“I think that his background will give him a bit of an edge in dealing with these things,” said Mark Maslyn, executive director for public policy with the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest agricultural group.
Maslyn said he was not concerned that the complaints about Siddiqui would hold up his confirmation by the Senate.
