BIOTECHNOLOGY: EU EXPERTS DIVIDED OVER SALES OF TRANSGENIC MAIZE BT 11

摘要

Experts on the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health failed on Decembers to agree on the marketing authorisation request for tinned sweetcorn Bt 11, a genetically-modified product destined for human consumption and developed by Swiss company Syngenta. Themaize variety is resistant to the com borer insect and tolerant to ammonium glufosinate (total herbicide). In the absence of a qualified majority, the experts sent the dossier back to the EU Council of Ministers, who will bear the responsibility for deciding whether or not to lift the four-year old de facto moratorium on new GM-products. Over the next few weeks, the European Commission, which openly favours lifting the moratorium, will put table a proposal in the Council, whichwill then have three months in which to announce a decision on whether or not to grant authorisation for imports of this kind of maize into the European market Environmentalists, including Friends of the Earth, welcomed the experts' no vote, which theysaid was "a victory for public health and for good sense".