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GMOs

Genetically modified organisms

GM trials in India threaten trade ties
13-Feb-2008 Times of India
India finds itself increasingly on the defensive in agricultural trade for permitting field trials across the country in a host of genetically modified food crops — rice, brinjal, okra, potato, tomato and groundnuts — and thereby exposing conventional crops to the risk of transgenic contamination. A case in point is a rather dodgy no-contamination certificate that the regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, was forced to give two months ago in response to a restriction imposed by Russia on import of rice, groundnuts and sesame seeds from India.
Corporate globalisation: Standing at the end of the road
13-Feb-2008 CounterPunch
Corporate globalization, savagely embodied by NAFTA, is not just a threat to Mexican farmers and rural villagers. The economic, health, and social damage created by industrial agriculture, corporate globalization, and the patenting and gene-splicing of transgenic plants and animals, are inexorably leading to universal "bioserfdom " for farmers, deteriorating health for consumers, a destabilized climate (energy intensive industrial agriculture and long-distance food transportation and processing account, directly or indirectly, for 40% of all climate-disrupting greenhouse gases), tropical deforestation, and a rapid depletion of oil supplies.
Duty-free US corn imports force Mexico GMO debate
20-Dec-2007 Reuters
Cheap US corn will flood into Mexico in January when trade barriers are lifted under NAFTA, pitting local farmers against each other over how to protect the crop that has fed Mexico for thousands of years.
Sowing a bitter harvest
12-Dec-2007 DNA
One outcome of the Indo-US deal on Agriculture appears to be the deregulation of the GM foods sector.
Open letter to the Prime Minister of India on the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture
6-Sep-2007
Given the interest generated with regard to the US-India nuclear deal, it is time to express our concerns on the US-India Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, too, and not let it be implemented in a business-as-usual attitude.
US-Korean food fight
26-Aug-2007 FPIF
The US government is working to deny South Koreans the right to local food and to undermine their domestic food safety laws through the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Australia-Japan Free Trade Agreement - A bad deal should be stopped
22-May-2007 CUJ
A Joint Statement from Australian and Japanese people
Malaysian trade talks stall on GM labelling
25-Apr-2007 FoodNavigator.com
The labelling of genetically modified (GM) goods within Malaysia has come further under the spotlight this week as the industry remains torn between its proposed bio-safety laws and free trade agreements between the US.
Fear of dumping
25-Apr-2007 The Star
Rice farmers in northern Peninsular Malaysia have another reason to call on the Government to quit the on-going Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the United States. Besides the concern over highly subsidised US rice competing with locally produced rice, there is fear of the US dumping the Liberty Link 601 (LL601) contaminated rice here.
No compromise on GM food labelling
17-Apr-2007 Sun2Surf
Malaysia will not compromise on mandatory labelling for genetically-modified (GM) foods or products in its negotiations with the US for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid.
BIO commends USTR for successfully concluding US-Korea free trade agreement
17-Apr-2007 BIO
BIO congratulates US Chief Agricultural Negotiator Richard Crowder and his staff for negotiating a separate understanding on several agricultural biotechnology issues. The FTA will go a long way in providing additional market access opportunities in Korea for US biotechnology companies.
Scientist warns of US FTA used to push GE rice
10-Apr-2007 TWN
Dr. Michael K Hansen, from US Centre of Consumer Policy, advises a cautious attitude towards an FTA with the US as the US has a hidden agenda in seeking to protect its farmers who now face more than RM4.6 billion in losses due to the lack of demand for GE rice.
Gov’t documents reveal trade-off on textiles, genetically modified crops
7-Apr-2007 Hankyoreh
The South Korean government pledged to ease quarantine rules on products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a free trade agreement with the United States struck on April 2. But while negotiations were underway on the deal, the government denied it was discussing the topic.
SK reportedly agrees to nix testing US genetically modified crops
3-Apr-2007 Hankyoreh
South Korea has reportedly exempted US foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from safety tests in the Korea-US free trade agreement struck on April 2, a move that Korean environmentalists criticised as the government "selling off" the health of the nation.
CAP worries FTA threatens GM food labelling
13-Mar-2007
Consumers Association of Penang is extremely concerned and anxious that Malaysia’s Biosafety Bill and an amendment to the Food Regulations are now threatened by proposals made in the negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United States.
M’sia pressured to ease up on GM food regulations
28-Feb-2007 Malaysiakini.com
The Malaysian government has been urged not to bend to US pressure, under their bilateral FTA talks, to scrap its proposed laws that would bring in mandatory labeling of genetically-modified (GM) foods.
Policy space for Mexican maize: Protecting agro-biodiversity by promoting rural livelihoods
16-Feb-2007 GDAE
With maize trade scheduled to be fully liberalized under NAFTA in 2008, many farm groups are calling for a renegotiation of the treaty’s agricultural provisions to prevent further damage. This analysis examines the room for alternative policies in Mexico under existing economic and environmental agreements, including NAFTA. It concludes that the Mexican government retains access to many useful policy instruments that could promote rural livelihoods while arresting the losses of important maize diversity. What is lacking is the political will to make use of them.
Gender review of the Economic Partnership Agreements
21-Dec-2006 IGTN
Paper presented to the European Commission in Brussels by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko from IGTN-Africa on the gender impacts of liberalization of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA).
Mexico shuts the door on GM maize
30-Oct-2006 IPS
Mexico has moved to ban experimental fields of genetically modified (GM) maize. But the gateway into Mexico of transgenic maize, in the form of unlabeled grain imports, remains ajar. In 2008, as part of NAFTA, the quotas and other barriers for the entry of US-grown GM maize and beans into Mexico will be eliminated.
Bilateral biosafety bullies
30-Oct-2006 GRAIN
This new briefing from GRAIN and the African Centre for Biosafety looks at how governments, the agribusiness sector and transnational companies are increasingly using bilateral trade agreements to prise open markets for genetically modified crops.