President Bush got it wrong when he said the European Union's rejection of genetically modified (GM) food had aggravated the risk of famine in Africa, an EU spokesman said today.
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President Bush
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Mr Bush told a biotechnology conference yesterday the EU should lift its restrictions on GM foods "for the sake of a continent threatened by famine".But European Commission spokesman Mr Gerassimos Thomas said: "It is false that we are anti-biotechnology or anti-developing countries," Mr Thomas said.
He noted the 15-nation EU handed out seven times more development aid than the United States.
Last year, some African countries rejected US food aid as it contained GM grain, which they feared could be used as seed that might threaten future exports to the EU, which is setting tight restrictions on imports of GM food.
The EU has rejected US calls to reassure developing countries that they should accept GM organisms, which are routinely eaten by US citizens but are practically banned in many EU countries.
The United States, Argentina and Canada, which grow 95 per cent of the world gene-altered crops, have launched a trade suit against the EU's unofficial ban on most GM crops which has hampered GM exports to the bloc for the last five years.
The latest war of words in the long-running biotech dispute came on the eve of an EU-US summit in Washington tomorrow when the world's two biggest economies hope to mend diplomatic fences after falling out over Iraq.