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WASHINGTON
- June 13 - An international treaty that seeks to protect the
environment from the potential risks of Genetically Modified
(GM) organisms will officially become law in 90 days from
today.
The
United Nations treaty, known as 'Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety', or Biosafety Protocol, had to be ratified by fifty
countries before entering into force. [1]
The 50th
ratification, by the Pacific Island State of Palau, was
announced today. The Protocol will enter into force in 90
days, on September 11, 2003. First discussed in 1992, it took
more than ten years for the Protocol to become law.
Friends
of the Earth International welcomed the start of the countdown
to the entry into force of the Protocol. It is the first
treaty that officially seeks to protect biological diversity
from the potential risks posed by genetically modified
organisms.
It
constitutes the first global environmental agreement of the
new millenium. It is also the first international agreement
which clearly says that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
"are different and therefore require a different
treatment".
The
Protocol will require all exporters of GMOs to be released
into the environment to take measures to prevent contamination
of GM seed products by implementing an identity preservation
system.
But many
issues are still pending. One key issue is liability. Friends
of the Earth International today repeated its call for the
immediate establishment of an effective environment, for
instance through contamination by GM crops, pay for the
pollution they create.
At the
same time the international notification system under the
Protocol does not replace national biosafety legislation, so
Friends of the Earth warned that enacting stricter national
legislation on biosafety is still needed.
The
Biosafety Protocol backs the approach of the European Union,
asserting that GMOs need different treatment from non-GMOs.
Therefore the Protocol stands in contradiction to policies
held by some countries, such as the U.S., which affirm that
GMOs are not different from the conventional plants and
animals they derive from.
"The
times of uncontrolled trade of GMOs are over. The Biosafety
Protocol sets a new era for global regulation of GMOs.
Exporters from all over the world should take adequate
measures to prevent contamination of GM seed products,"
said Ricardo Navarro, Salvadorean Chairman of Friends of the
Earth International.
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