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- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
UN treaty regulating GM to become law13 June 2003
An international treaty that seeks to protect the environment from the potential risks of genetically modified (GM) organisms will officially become law 90 days from 13 June. The United Nations treaty, known as 'Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety', or Biosafety Protocol, had to be ratified by 50 countries before entering into force.
The 50th ratification, by the Pacific Island State of Palau, was announced today. The Protocol will enter into force in 90 days, on 11 September. 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 millennium. 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 repeated its call for the immediate establishment of an effective liability mechanism under the Protocol to ensure that corporations that harm the 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, Salvadorian Chairman of Friends of the Earth International.
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