August 16, 1999

US trade war policy self destructive
- It is time for Clinton to face facts about GE foods

Today the message came that the US again threatens the European Union (EU) with trade war if it continues to block the licensing of GE crops. The rapidly increasing resistance to GE foods in Europe has apparently made itself felt to the american food producers.

The first time that there was such a threat was about 2 1/2 years ago. Then it was initially successful and forced the EU to approve GE soy and maize. But since then so much has been revealed about the lacking safety of GE crops that the present threat appears irresponsible. Even if it would be successful, it is unrealistic by the US to believe that it will change the willingness of consumers to buy GE food. It is not by forcing governments but by winning consumers that new products can be widely accepted. And you cannot win consumers by repeating obvious lies about the safety of products.

This policy of the US is very likely to be counterproductive. Many European consumers are already enraged because the US has been pressing hard to deny them the right to choose what they eat. The new threat is likely to reinforce such feelings. It will then further contribute to the greatly increased involvement in consumer organizations. This involvement has yielded significant results in Europe which has inspired even more people to join in. And the successes of European consumer organizations along with the attempts to deny people the right to know what they eat has stimulated an unprecedented consumer involvement also in other parts of the word - and recently even in the US.

It is time for the US government to swallow the bitter truth - that the world is realizing that the launch of genetically engineered products on to the market is highly premature and unjustifiable. It is time for the US - as well as the industry - to take global responsibility for the environmental and health safety of its products and apply a precautionary approach to the introduction of new technologies (see The Precautionary approach to the safety of new products.). In the case of GE products, the risks are so incompletely known that leading insurance experts now are warning for insuring GE businesses.

The world is already suffering from the damage from products launched before sufficient knowledge has been gathered about their safety. Genetic engineering is incomparably the most profound manipulation of nature ever done. As released genes cannot be recalled, harmful consequences are irreparable and may spread indefinitely. Very little is known about the environmental consequences. Yet the US uses all its power to force the world to accept its world wide application blindly. It is unrealistic to believe that this will be successful at length. Already investors are becoming increasingly hesitant, for good reasons, see "Message to investors in Biotechnology".

The more force the US is using, the more resistance it is likely to meet. Its provocative power politics is likely to hasten a crash of the biotech sector. But even worse for the US, its attempts to force unwanted food down the throats of consumers abroad may create resentment against other american export products. This can be expected especially if the use of "consumer power" against GE foods is made impossible by non-labeling or incomplete labeling.

The US GE food project appears more and more as a gigantic "Pig Bay syndrome" where the government is pushing towards an inevitable crash assisted by industry-dependent "scientific" advisors entertaining rosy illusions about the prospects. It would be a good idea for Clinton to begin by carefully eliminating all industry-dependent members of his scientific advisory committee where a Monsanto scientist until recently was one of two chairmen.

It is time for the Clinton administration to face facts. Start listening to scientists who are more interested in scientific truth than in serving the industry!

Jaan Suurkula