"The European Commission is to ask that each shipment is accompanied with an analytical report - a measure that would halt all imports for weeks."
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EU set to ban US maize feed after GM scare
Bruno Waterfield
EU Politix
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200504/9f014809-1421-430b-b458-73b67a71d3fb.htm

The EU has moved closer to a ban on US maize-based animal feeds after Europe's governments demanded that imports be certified free of unauthorised GM crops.

EU member states on Tuesday agreed unanimously to proposals requiring that all corn feed shipments from the US are guaranteed not to contain the unauthorised GM maize BT10.

The move is likely to lead to a de-facto ban on EU imports of US maize-based animal feed by the European Commission later this week.

A corn gluten feed trade worth Euro 347 million a year could be now be hit after shipments of unauthorised GM crops were exported from the US.

The dispute centres on BT10, a biotech animal feed manufactured by Swiss company Syngenta, sold to the US and exported to the EU without approval.

The European Commission is to ask that each shipment is accompanied with an analytical report - a measure that would halt all imports for weeks.

"Exports of corn gluten feed from the US which are accompanied by this analytical report would be allowed to enter the EU, but without this analytical report they would not be allowed to enter the EU," an EU source told Reuters.

"We're talking about a measure which would say that exports of corn gluten feed essentially should be certified, should be accompanied by an analytical report by an accredited laboratory certifying that these exports are free of Bt-10."

EU health and consumer protection chief Markos Kyprianou has stressed the need for tests that can detect, and thus prevent, unauthorised GM entering Europe.

"Kyprianou continues to emphasise the importance of detection methods," said a commission spokesman on Tuesday.

Existing detection methods are modelled to test products for authorised GM not unauthorised or experimental crops.

"We have detection methods for GMOs that are authorised. We do not have one for this GMO because it is unauthorised," said the commission spokesman.

Syngenta is still developing reliable detection methods for BT 10 and workable tests are not expected for another two weeks.

Any possibility of certifying imports would depend on the agribusiness giant providing EU authorities with a BT10 test.

Although just 1000 tons of BT10 affected product was imported into the EU, the row raises questions about the Europes ability to manage GM crops.

Brussels is angry over the incident which has damaged the authority of the EU's controversial, and already discredited, authorisation procedures.

Syngenta insists BT10 poses no threat to human health and is very similar to BT11, another genetically modified corn strain - already approved by the EU.

Friends of the Earth has attacked the companys secrecy over BT10 and the GM crops antibiotic resistance gene.

"The failure of Syngenta to provide the basic information needed to test for their contamination is a disgrace," said a spokesman.

"The commission must insist that this secrecy ends and Syngenta sets up a fund to pay for testing. The polluter must pay, not the public."