Groups Denounce US Pressure on Thailand,
Sri Lanka & Other Nations on GE

M2 PRESSWIRE
August 14, 2001

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, OCA, & 200 Other Public Interest Groups Denounce
US Government Strong-Arm Tactics

"Stop threatening other nations' food safety laws" Groups tell President
Bush; Sri Lanka and Thailand among those targeted by Bush administration
over genetically engineered food regulations

More than 200 consumer, farm and environmental groups worldwide sent a
letter today protesting threats by the Bush administration to challenge
other countries' food safety laws as barriers to international trade. Groups
representing millions of citizens from Australia, Brazil,Germany, India,
South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States and the UK have signed
the letter.

The groups, which include Friends of the Earth International, called the
U.S. threats unreasonable, especially since the US allows states to
establish food safety and environmental laws that are tougher than national
laws. A five-year moratorium on engineered fish was passed in the state of
Maryland last April. US pesticide laws also allow states to set limits on
pesticide use that are more strict than federal law.

"If a US state can have a moratorium on genetically modified foods, why
can't other countries do the same?" said Ricardo Navarro, Chair of Friends
of the Earth International and a resident of El Salvador. "The US has no
right to tell Sri Lanka or any other country how to write their food safety
laws." Pete Riley of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern
Ireland commented:

"The hypocrisy of the US in trying to dictate to another sovereign state on
how they should legislate on GMOs whilst allowing variations with their own
country beggars belief.

Bush's administration have once again been shown to dance to the tune of the
biotech companies in lobbying for WTO action against Sri Lanka. It is time
the US government and the WTO understood that individual countries have laws
which reflect their culture and environment and are not merely satellites of
the USA".

Clare Devereux, Five Year Freeze Co-ordinator, said: "Given the continued
uncertainty around the safety of GM foods, Sri Lanka is completely justified
in its decision to put a ban in place in order to create time to carry out
their own research. This is exactly what the Five Year Freeze has been
campaigning for here in the UK - Sri Lanka however has shown itself braver
than the UK Government by refusing to be dictated to by the WTO and US
Government." Weyland Beeghly, Agricultural Counsellor from the US Embassy in
India threatened in May that the US was considering challenging a ban in Sri
Lanka of genetically engineered organisms by submitting a complaint to the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). The ban is scheduled to take effect on 1
September, sixty days later than planned as Sri Lanka granted a WTO request
to allow exporters time to adjust to the law.

Wichai Chokwiwat, Secretary General to the Thai Food and Drug Administration
told Thai newspaper, The Nation, (19 July) that his country was a target of
threats to use US trade laws to retaliate against a Thai proposal made in
July to require labelling of genetically engineered corn and soya crops.
The letter to the Bush administration argues that Sri Lanka and other
nations have a scientific,regulatory and moral basis to set limits on the
proliferation of genetically engineered organisms.

A copy of the letter to the Bush Administration, and a full list of
signatories, can be found <www.foei.org> along with full details of the Sri
Lanka GMO ban.