GM restrictions may harm EU maize imports

25 October 2007 16:06  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS news)--The European Union (EU) may find it difficult to import enough maize to fulfil its biofuels and food needs if it does not allow authorised genetically modified (GM) maize across its borders, EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said on Thursday.

 

Speaking to the Hungarian Agricultural Council, Fischer Boel highlighted the growing number of GM crops which are authorised for use by Europe’s trade partners but not by the EU.

 

In light of the EU’s need to import greater quantities of maize and the bloc’s decreasing ability to drive world trade, she warned the EU could find itself unable to find suitable supply to fulfil its demands.

 

“We now need to import more maize, but are less and less able to set the tone on the world market,” said Fischer Boel.

 

“China and other emerging countries are now also big importers and do not all share our hesitations about GMOs.”

 

“In this situation, many Argentine maize-producers appear to be switching to GM varieties,” she added. If this happens on a large scale, Brazil will be our only significant non-GM supplier. And who knows how long the Brazilians would hold out?”

 

The commissioner said she was “certainly not arguing that we in the EU should authorise GM products which science tells us to reject. But where science has given a product a clean bill of health, that fact must be paramount as we follow the authorisation procedure.”

 

“Otherwise, hesitations about new GM products may really bite economically,” she cautioned.

By: Philippa Jones
+44 20 8652 3214

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