"the potential humanitarian consequences of this pipeline break for the needy in Sudan cannot be over emphasized" - USAID, quoted in item 1

"The Centre for Global Development recently put America second from bottom in its ranking of how effectively developed nation's policies help the poor. More American cash for Aids should be welcomed. Yet the US contribution, measured as a percentage of its GDP, is smaller than Uganda's." - Guardian leader, item 2

1.Sudan extends waiver on GM ban under US pressure
2.The US is the world's stingiest donor
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1.Sudan extends waiver on GM ban under US pressure

We reported previously how as of March 7 USAID had stopped all further humanitarian food aid shipments to Port Sudan because the Government of Sudan has asked that US commodities be certified free of GMOs. They did this even though they had been warned by the United Nations that food stocks for relief operations would be exhausted by April/May of this year. USAID itself openly admitted, "the potential humanitarian consequences of this pipeline break for the needy in Sudan cannot be over emphasized". USAID provides some 70% of the World Food Program's total pipeline for the country and has consistently refused to provide any certification and pressed Sudan to back down.

Patrick Mulvany of the ITDG tells us that "the situation in Sudan is pretty awful and the government has just extended the waiver on banning GM food imports to January 2005 as a result of US diplomatic pressure or a 'demarche'."

See: <http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/7fb97bac28daa9be49256e6d00031ec6?OpenDocument>

"USG-donated food assistance. On May 20, 2003 the [Government of Sudan] unilaterally issued a new policy requiring that food assistance be certified as free of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The immediate result of this policy was to block USG distr of commodities in Port Sudan to WFP [World Food Programme]. Following a USG demarche issued on June 13, the GOS cleared the blocked USG commodities and granted to WFP a six month waiver for compliance on GMO certification requirements. The USG issued a second demarche on October 16, and the GOS granted a second six month waiver to WFP that began on January 8, 2004 and expires on July 7.

During this second six month period, USAID policy has been to continue shipments of humanitarian food assistance to Port Sudan to sustain WFP operations and avoid pipeline breaks. USAID's approval of food shipments is contingent upon transport, arrival, and clearance of food commodities prior to July 7 and that food assistance is not subject to GMO certification requirements. WFP has notified USAID that it anticipates current cereal stocks for Sudan will be exhausted by July, 2004 due in large part to the requirements of 1.18 million conflict-affected people in Darfur. To assist in averting a pipeline break, USAID's office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP) recently contributed 18,700 metric tons (MT) of food aid valued at $17 million to the WFP Sudan Emergency Program. On March 29, the USG issued a third demarche urging the GOS to provide formal, written notification of a change in GMO certification requirements or a third extension for the current waiver to this policy. On March 31, the GOS extended the waiver for an additional six months, allowing WFP to distribute genetically modified food until January 7, 2005. "

for more on the food aid issue: http://ngin.tripod.com/forcefeed.htm
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2. "the US is the world's stingiest donor"
from a Guardian leader, May 31 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,13365,967654,00.html

The world's biggest economy is also the world's stingiest aid donor. Washington still only devotes 0.12% of its national income to overseas aid. Europe provides twice as much as America in development cash.

Washington's aid programmes are still not driven by humanitarian imperatives. Rather they are sometimes used to break open new markets for US corporations.

How else to explain why Ethiopia, where 15 million are threatened by famine, receives about the same level of food aid as Peru, where American agribusiness dumps dairy surpluses.

The Centre for Global Development recently put America second from bottom in its ranking of how effectively developed nation's policies help the poor.

More American cash for Aids should be welcomed. Yet the US contribution, measured as a percentage of its GDP, is smaller than Uganda's. A little more than $2bn a year of new money has been promised - but half of it will bypass the UN global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. Read on... http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,13365,967654,00.html