low graphics version | feedback | help
| Front Page World UK UK Politics |
| Business |
|
Market Data Economy Companies Your Money Business Basics |
| Sci/Tech Health Education Sport Entertainment Talking Point In Depth AudioVideo |
EU makes biotech concessions
Worries about beef have added to food safety fears |
European trade ministers have criticised the European Commission for making a surprise concession on the issue of biotechnology at the world trade talks in Seattle.
 |
|
 You didn't just shoot yourself in the foot. You machine gunned yourself in the foot.  |
| Unnamed EU trade minister |
But criticism was scathing. Environment ministers from Denmark, France, Norway and the UK said they were were opposed to the proposal.
One unnamed trade minister was quoted as saying: "You didn't just shoot yourself in the foot. You machine gunned yourself in the foot."
Health worries
The issue of biotechnology, which includes the question of importing food made from genetically-modified organisms, is high on the agenda of the EU after the health scares over BSE-infected beef and trade rows with the United States over the use of growth hormones in animal feed.
The US is the largest producer of GM crops |
"The WTO has neither the mandate, the competence, nor the public trust to work on this controversial issue," said Charles Arden-Clarke of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The United States is the world's biggest producer of genetically-modified food crops, which advocates say could benefit the world's growing population with their higher yields.
Tough agriculture talks
The concession comes at a crucial stage in the broader negotiations over agriculture, which are one of the key issues at the trade summit.
The United States and the Cairns group of farm-exporting countries are pressing for the total elimination of agricultural subsidies, which are the centrepiece of the EU's common agricultural policy, its largest single spending programme.
We don't want special treatment. We just want agriculture to be treated as fairly as any other segment of the global economy. |
| Bill Clinton |
And the EU and Japan are fighting to ensure that farm reform is considered in the context of "multifunctionality", a codeword for allowing other objectives, like preserving the countryside, to be given equal weight to any trade-opening goals.
President Clinton weighed into the debate in a speech to farmers on Wednesday at the sidelines of the talks.
"Our agenda here is to fight and win for the family farmers of the United States. We don't want special treatment. We just want agriculture to be treated as fairly as any other segment of the global economy," he said.
It is quite possible that any EU concession on biotechnology - which officials say does not preclude negotiations elsewhere - was offered in return for some modification of the language of agricultural reform.
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
 | BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
 | BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 | PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
The new fault lines
|
|
See also: |
|
|
|
 |
01 Dec 99 | Battle for Free Trade |
|
Seattle trade talks timeline |
| |
|
|
24 Nov 99 | Battle for Free Trade |
|
Agriculture trade battle looms |
| |
|
|
02 Dec 99 | Americas |
|
Seattle curfew for second night |
| |
|
|
01 Dec 99 | Americas |
|
WTO 'seizing control of GM trade' |
| |
|
|
20 Jul 99 | The Economy |
|
US hits EU, spares UK in beef war |
| |
|
|
Internet links: |
|
|
|
|
|
US Trade Representative |
| |
|
|
World Trade Organisation |
| |
|
|
EU trade directorate |
| |
|
|
Cairns group |
| |
|
|
American Farm Bureau |
| |
|
|
World Wide Fund for Nature |
| |
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites |
|
Links to other Business stories are at the foot of the page.
E-mail this story to a friend
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~28~RS~)