6-Regualtion: GE industry lobbying puts Sri Lanka's ban on GE food at risk

[GENET <genetnl@xs4all.be>]

-----------------------
genet-news mailing list
-----------------------

-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  Lobbying puts ban on GE food at risk
SOURCE: Inter Press Service (IPS/IMS)
DATE:   August 24, 2001

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


Development-Sri Lanka: Lobbying Puts Ban on GE Food at Risk

COLOMBO, Aug 24 (IPS) - Four months ago, Sri Lankan environmentalists were 
a jubilant lot. Now they are disappointed as a landmark ban on genetically 
engineered (GE) foods from Sep. 1 may be deferred due to protests from 
western governments and the private sector here.

One of the fresh concerns raised in the implementation of the ban is 
whether it would affect food aid like wheat flour from the United States.

The ban was to have been effective from May 1, but this was put off to 
September as local companies wanted time to get GE-free certification on 
imported foods like cheese and soya products, and to delay shipments.

''The decision in May was a landmark one and we completely backed the 
government on this,'' says Hemantha Vithanage, an environmental scientist 
and executive director of the Environmental Foundation Ltd (EFL), 
expressing disappointment in the then postponement.

But in an Aug. 22 letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the EFL 
expressed concern about a new official committee that had been appointed by 
Health Minister John Seneviratne to look into the ban. ''We understand the 
aim of this committee is to move towards lifting the ban, which was so 
courageously promulgated by the Food Advisory Committee (FAC) of the health 
ministry.''

EFL appealed to the president not to lift the ban on one of the most 
progressive GE-free legislative measures in the world, saying millions of 
farmers, consumers and peoples' organisations working for safe food around 
the world were adamantly opposed to the genetic modification of food, its 
development and commercialisation.

While most countries ordered the labelling of food items to ensure they are 
GE-free, Sri Lanka went further in its decision and said it was banning all 
types of GE foods.

As the effectivity date of the ban nears, green groups have accused western 
governments, including the United States, of putting pressure on Sri Lanka 
to abandon the ban. But Stephen Holgate, chief U.S. spokesperson in Colombo 
and director of the U.S. Information Service, denied the charges and said 
the United States had only raised some concerns about the implementation of 
the regulation.

''At no time did we oppose the ban. Our concerns were based on the fact 
that there is no evidence,'' he said. In May however, Weyland Beeghly, a 
trade counselor attached to the U.S. embassy in India, told reporters in 
Colombo that the ban was unwarranted.

He denied what he called speculative reports that the U.S. was testing this 
''very risky'' GE technology on poor populations in developing countries. 
''More than one third of the shelf space of any supermarket in the US is 
occupied by foods obtained by using biotechnology,'' he pointed out.

Thilak Ranaviraja, the civil servant in charge of the health ministry, also 
agreed that the United States had not opposed the ban. He said no decision 
has been taken to revoke the ban, except that a new committee was reviewing 
the move before its implementation on Sep. 1. ''We have received a lot of 
representations for and against the ban and hence we need to be cautious.''

Ranaviraja said the U.S. government was among countries that had sought 
clarification on the Sri Lankan government's ban, while some other 
countries, concerned with the issue, did not make written comments.

''One of the issues we need to look at is whether the ban would impact on a 
lot of food aid that we get from donor countries and international 
organisations,'' he said, adding that the government did not want to 
antagonise ''friendly'' countries without proper investigation before 
enforcing the ban.

He said the committee's findings were unlikely to be ready by September.</
P><P> EFL said that though GE foods are still untested, it has not been 
proven safe for consumption. ''It is deplorable that the government is 
willing to put economic gain before the health of the nation and has 
succumbed to the pressures of both international and local parties who have 
vested interests in this matter,'' said Withanage in a letter to the 
president.

Withanage said a request from the Chamber of Commerce, the country's 
biggest chamber group, to the health ministry to defer the ban until 2004 
was also ''disconcerting''.

The chamber wrote to the ministry on Aug. 17, saying that Sri Lanka should 
follow the Codex Alimentarius Commissions (CAC) -- a joint body of the 
World Health Organisation and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation) 
which is promulgating guidelines and standards for GM foods by end-2003 for 
implementation in 2004.

The health ministry in May gazetted a list of 21 items which were to be 
banned unless proved that they are not GE foods.

The list included a range of soya foods including soya milk, soya bean, soy 
sauce, soya nuggets or textured vegetable protein (TVP) -- which has fast 
become a substitute for beef among health-conscious consumers -- other soya-
based products, tomato sauce, tomato paste and tomato-based products. The 
United States is a major exporter of soya, a good amount of which are now 
genetically modified.

The health ministry said such foods would be allowed into the country only 
after a GE-free certificate is provided. Importers of the list of 
restricted items were asked to clear the food by a competent authority in 
the producing country.

Private sector officials and environmentalists said Sri Lanka was the first 
country in Asia to resort to a ban on GE foods and probably among the few 
in the world that had taken this move instead of the labeling process that 
is prevalent in many countries.

''There was going to be a lot of confusion over the ban,'' said S 
Balachandran, a council member of the National Chamber of Commerce. ''We 
repeatedly told the government not to rush into this legislation and 
instead resort to labelling measures.''

Balachandran noted that the company that he worked for, Millers Ltd, had 
however obtained the necessary GE-free certification for the import of 
Kraft cheese from Australia. ''We have got certifications of our products 
from Australia but such certificates have been refused from the United 
States where we import some products,'' he added.

The debate over GE foods has been raging for over two years in Sri Lanka 
and follows a worldwide controversy over GE food, whch contains ingredients 
that have been genetically modified for certain qualities, be it longer 
shelf life to flavour.

In fact, as early as more than 16 months ago, there was a move by the 
government to enforce a ban on GE foods in the country. ''Yes, in fact we 
placed an advertisement in the newspapers informing the trade of a possible 
ban on genetically engineered food imports,'' said S Nagiah, chief food 
inspector of the health ministry.

Sri Lanka decided to enforce a ban instead of implementing GE- free 
labelling of food because it is a major food importer, unlike other Asian 
or European countries. ''For instance, India or Britain doesn't import as 
much food as we do. We need to take more precautions that the west and we 
have a responsibility to the consumer,'' the health ministry's food chief 
noted.

Nagiah said the decision to enforce a ban was taken after several months of 
discussion, debate and deliberation. ''There may be little or no evidence 
to show the impact of GE foods on humans, but genetic engineering is a 
dangerous thing. If we allow a GE seed to invade our local species, it 
could be disastrous.''



--


|*********************************************|
|                   GENET                     |
| European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering |
|                                             |
|             Hartmut MEYER (Mr)              |
|               Kleine Wiese 6                |
|           D - 38116 Braunschweig            |
|                 Germany                     |
|                                             |
| phone: +49-531-5168746                      |
| fax:   +49-531-5168747                      |
| email: genetnl@xs4all.be                    |
|*********************************************|