US official warns on European delays in approving GM foods

THE EU must act swiftly to improve its approval system for GM crops if it is not to damage its good relations with the US, a prominent official in the Clinton administration has said. The Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Richard Rominger, warned at a conference on GM foods in Brussels that delays in approval were costing the US many millions of dollars.

Some 25 anti-biotech demonstrators were arrested yesterday after being refused admission at the start of the conference hosted by the European Voice journal and partly sponsored by the US biotech multinational Monsanto.

"The EU's lengthy, complex process costs us money, about $200 million last year in lost exports to Spain, Portugal and other EU members," Mr Rominger said. "Since several US biotech corn varieties remain unapproved in the EU, it's entirely possible that we won't export any corn to the EU this year."

The US, however, was unlikely to take the EU to the World Trade Organisation to get its way on GM foods. The WTO was not the way for the US to solve all its trade problems. But with many biotechnology companies responsible for developing and marketing GM products being American, it had placed GM products at the heart of the transatlantic trade relationship.

Mr Rominger said it took an average of nine months for a biotech product to pass through the US regulatory process. In the EU, that time-frame was up to 24 months, and the process was not open, transparent or predictable. The result was that European companies were discouraged from developing GM varieties that would benefit the 15-nation bloc's farmers and consumers.

"We would favour a common regulatory approach so that a company would apply for approval in the US and the EU simultaneously," he said.

He also warned that calls from European consumer groups to segregate GM crop varieties would be costly to implement and push up food prices.

Dr Kenneth Baker, director of government affairs for Monsanto Europe, echoed the US official's call for the EU to improve its regulatory system. "It is essential that regulatory structures in Europe be improved and co-ordinated. Biotech won't produce all the solutions but must be allowed to play its part, and so far that is not happening," he said.

It was a myth that biotechnology had only taken hold in the US since it had also been embraced in Argentina, China, Canada, South Africa and Uruguay, he said.