US may provoke row over GM food labelling
The Independent
By Marie Woolf Chief Political Correspondent
14 August 2001

America and Europe are heading for a damaging dispute over European Union plans to label imported food that has been contaminated by genetically modified crops.   A leaked memo recording talks between British ministers and senior officials in the Bush administration shows America is furious at EU-wide plans to insist that all food containing more than 1 per cent GM ingredients be labelled with the fact.

The memo shows that Washington, under pressure from GM crop growers, is considering challenging the EU plans under world trade law and wants Britain to make the US case in the EU.   A leaked record of discussions at the highest level of the Bush administration shows that the proposals for an EU directive on labelling GM food are causing concern in the President's inner circle of most trusted advisers.

The document records discussions involving Dylan Glenn, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the White House.   It shows that Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, encountered American opposition to the GM plans on her first trade visit to America shortly after taking office last month.

 The leaked document records a conversation between Alan Larson, the US Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Mrs Hewitt in late July. The memo shows that Ms Hewitt said Britain favours giving consumers the right to choose whether to buy GM crops through clear labelling. She told America that consumers had concerns over GM food.

 "Larson told Mrs Hewitt on 24 July that he feared that the proposals on traceability and labelling would be inconsistent with WTO rules on national treatment and would establish a separate regime with no basis in science or fact," the memo says.

 "This could effectively block $4bn [£2.8bn] of US exports to Europe and would undermine, not reinforce, efforts to restore public confidence in agricultural biotechnology. Mrs Hewitt explained the strength of public views and EU consumers' demand for the right to make their own decisions on the basis of labelling."

The rules will mean that conventional crops that become contaminated by neighbouring GM crops would have to be labelled.

Environmental groups seized on the memo, saying that it showed Britain was being pressured by America to water down the EU proposals.

"This leak shows how much pressure the US is now putting on the British Government to back its move to force GM products into the European market," said Carol Kearney of Friends of the Earth.

 "President Bush obviously hopes that Britain will play its usual role as a Trojan horse for US interests inside the EU."