-Caveat Lector- Is it just coincidence that the US is promoting terminator seeds so that other countries will become dependent on American to keep their people fed? No wonder the Clinton administration is upset that Europe doesn't want to play ball. The game is rigged... Hilary Tuesday June 29 12:29 PM ET European Biotech Fear Seen As Key U.S. Trade Threat By Julie Vorman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe's fear of genetically modified foods and agricultural products is the ``single greatest trade threat'' faced by the United States, a senior Clinton administration official said Tuesday. U.S. farmers are rapidly adopting bioengineered soybeans, corn, potatoes and other crops designed to resist certain insects or to enhance yields at a time when the European Union has tried to put the brakes on imports of genetically modified foods. ``Almost 100 percent of our agricultural exports in the next five years will be genetically modified or combined with bulk commodities that are genetically modified,'' Stuart Eizenstat, the nominee for the second-highest job at the U.S. Treasury Department, told the U.S. Senate Finance committee. The EU's fear of bioengineered foods and farm commodities is ``the single greatest trade threat that we face,'' he said. Some European consumer groups, wary after a series of scares over tainted food in recent years, have called for a moratorium on genetically modified foods until more is known about their long-term effects. But U.S. scientists, farm groups and regulators maintain that genetically modified crops are safe and simply the latest step in breeding plants to produce better food with fewer chemicals. Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and French Farm Minister Jean Glavany met in Paris and promised to try to resolve biotechnology issues before the next round of world trade talks begins in November. European Union environmental ministers last week decided effectively to delay approval of any genetically modified crops until 2002, when a new law on licensing the products is in effect. The action came one day after the Clinton administration said it might launch a World Trade Organization action against the European Union for approval delays that cost U.S. corn farmers some $200 million in annual lost sales. The United States encouraged the European Union to help bolster consumer confidence by creating a food safety regulatory structure with rigorous scientific standards and procedures modeled after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Eizenstat said. A top U.S. priority at the upcoming round of world trade talks will be the elimination of export and internal subsidies for agricultural products, he said. Australia, New Zealand and developing countries with agricultural exports are expected to join the United States in pressing the European Union to phase out its subsidies, Eizenstat said. Eizenstat made only a passing reference to a long-simmering dispute with the European Union over imports of U.S. hormone-treated beef, saying Washington hoped to resolve that trade issue ``amicably.'' A WTO arbitrator was scheduled to decide next month whether the United States could $202 million worth of retaliatory tariffs on EU goods. Two WTO panels already have ruled that the EU's decade-long ban on beef from cows raised with artificial growth hormones violates international trading rules. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
