EXCERPTS: "When a free-trade organisation like NAFTA starts raising concerns about GM crops, it ought to set some alarm bells ringing. It's like McDonalds saying burgers and chips aren't very good for you," - Ben Ayliffe of Greenpeace

"By undercutting the Mexican farmers, the US is also threatening the country's food security, and worsening Mexico's economic woes, since unemployment and rural to urban migration will increase sharply as the farmers lose their livelihood," - Thomas Matthews of the UK-based environmental watch group GM Watch told New Age on Monday.

New Age is the 2nd largest circulated English language daily in Bangladesh
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NAFTA rules against GM crop
MAHTAB HAIDER, London, November 18
New Age, November 18, 2004
http://www.newagebd.com/front.html#3

At a time when import and development of genetically modified food is being pushed through in Bangladesh by US interests in particular, a commission of the North American Free Trade Agreement - a body that has to sustain tremendous US clout - has recommended that the Mexican government minimise imports of GM maize from the US on environmental and health grounds.

The NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation recommended in a report released on November 8 that the Mexican government should take drastic measures to minimise its imports of genetically modified maize from the US and continue a ban on the cultivation of GM maize in the country.

The warning came in the face of strong US opposition, which had succeeded in delaying the publication of the recommendation since June, as it runs contrary to US trade interests.

The NAFTA warning is relevant to Bangladesh in the context that there is a possibility of genetically modified technologies entering Bangladesh under USAID funding.

The ministries and departments concerned have so far been optimistic to introduce the technology since its advocates promise increased grain yield.

"The Mexican government should strengthen the moratorium on commercial planting of transgenic maize by minimizing the import of living transgenic maize grain," the NAFTA report said.

"All the maize imported by Mexico from Canada and the United States, that is not certified as GM-free, should be sent directly and without exception to mills for processing," the report added.

The US Trade Representative and the Environmental Protection Agency have criticised the NAFTA report on the day of its release, terming it "flawed, not based on sound science, and [contradictory to] the report's own scientific findings".

But environmental groups have lauded the report, echoing the concerns it voices, claiming that it rightly undermines US efforts to export GM technology to other parts of the world.

In 2002, Zambia rejected a large consignment of US food aid after discovering that the World Food Programme had been covertly distributing GM food among refugees in spite of a government ban.

"When a free-trade organisation like NAFTA starts raising concerns about GM crops, it ought to set some alarm bells ringing. It's like McDonalds saying burgers and chips aren’t very good for you," Ben Ayliffe of Greenpeace told New Age on Monday.

The NAFTA commission discreetly underlined the threat of genetic contamination that GM maize poses to the indigenous varieties grown by Mexico's 'campesinos' or small farmers. It suggests that the Mexican government should consider subsidising growers of traditional varieties of maize, to keep them from being wiped out by cheaper US imports.

"Mexicans have cultivated maize for over 10,000 years, and each maize variety grown anywhere in the world has its origin in that country," said Ayliffe.

He warned that contamination and the loss of diversity of indigenous crop strains would imperil all future prospects of natural crop improvement.

Mexico imports between six to eight million tonnes of maize from the US annually, about 30 per cent of which is estimated to be genetically modified.

The imports are inevitably cheaper than the maize grown by the campesinos, as the US government subsidises its own growers with $19 billion of assistance every year.

While the US farm lobby claims that cheap imports help Mexican consumers in the form of lower prices, the country's 20-million strong campesino community fear that imported maize will wipe out their livelihood.

"By undercutting the Mexican farmers, the US is also threatening the country's food security, and worsening Mexico's economic woes, since unemployment and rural to urban migration will increase sharply as the farmers lose their livelihood," Thomas Matthews of the UK-based environmental watch group GM Watch told New Age on Monday.

NAFTA was set up 10 years ago by Mexico, Canada and the US to promote competition and efficiency and has time and again been accused of kowtowing to the US trade agenda.