Talks stall on setting up global rules to regulate genetically altered crops
Tuesday, February 23, 1999
By Bill Lambrecht
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
CARTAGENA, Colombia U.N.-sponsored negotiations to set up global rules
for genetically engineered products reached a stalemate on Monday with hopes
for a "Cartagena protocol" rapidly diminishing.
Representatives from 137 countries broke into groups to make a final attempt
at compromise after an emotional airing of frustration about the lack of
progress during eight days of talks.
Negotiators were meeting through the night and hoped to reach an agreement
today.
"The protocol is very ill in the hospital, but perhaps it can still recover," said
Rafe Pomerance, a deputy assistant secretary of state and a U.S. negotiator.
The gathering in Colombia is the last of six negotiating sessions trying to
produce a "biosafety protocol" to regulate the flow of genetically modified
organisms around the world.
It is organized under the United Nations Environmental Program as an
outgrowth of the international Convention on Biological Diversity, an agreement
reached seven years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
A failure to reach agreement would have implications not just for genetic
engineering but for the future of the Rio treaty, which is aimed at preserving the
global diversity of plants and animals.
Many countries around the world worry that environmental and social
problems might result from "transgenic" products - crops and food with foreign
genes inserted to give new characteristics.
The outcome of the Cartegena meeting is important to American farmers, to St.
Louis-based Monsanto Co., the leader in genetically engineered crops, and to
St. Louis, which is becoming an international center for plant science.
Manufacturers and the U.S. government say they want a biosafety protocol to
increase global confidence in the technology. But they have resisted demands
for strict rules, arguing that provisions such as liability requirements would offer
a license to erect trade barriers.
Developing nations, often aligned with Europe, have been trying to draw a pact
that requires labeling of shipments and covers as many products as possible.
They want the United States to assume more responsibility for shipments,
something U.S. negotiators have steadfastly resisted. The negotiators don't
want to assume a role in private commerce.
In a speech to the gathering on Monday, Colombian President Andres
Pastrana observed that genetic engineering could offer solutions for food,
human health and environmental destruction.
But reflecting the view of many developing nations, he asserted that seeds
should not lead to "control of monopolies of markets or political control of food
production."
The angry reaction from delegates to a draft compromise during an open
session on Monday suggested that hopes for putting aside differences could be
slim: Some called it an insult, a joke and even a snake.
Copyright (c) 1999, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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