Glickman Says Consumers Must Understand Biotech Benefits

August 31, 1999

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman says agricultural products of biotechnology will be accepted when consumers understand the benefits such products have to offer. Biotech food safety regulations must meet the highest standards possible, he told the Cairns Group meeting in Buenos Aires.

"It is critical for the future of biotechnology that the food safety regulatory regimes contain the highest standards possible," he says. "These systems must be arms length from the industry that is developing these technologies so as to give consumers around the world the confidence they need to accept the resulting products. If consumers have no confidence in the new technologies or the regulatory process, they will not use the products no matter how good they may seem."

For the next international trade round, in Seattle, WA, this fall, "we need to eliminate export subsidies," says Glickman. "Export subsidies depress world commodity prices, are costly and discourage production by farmers who, in the absence of subsidies, would be able to compete on a level playing field."

Another objective of the United States will be to address "he trade distorting practices of agricultural state trading enterprises," Glickman says. "We will seek more discipline and greater transparency in the monopoly activities that these government-run entities engage in."

Market access is a third goal, adds Gickman, especially by ensuring that tariff rate quotas are used "in a manner that increases market access rather than restricting it." TRQs can have the effect of curtailing imports and impeding trade, "depending on how they are administered."