'Erroneous Questions' Plague 'Promising' Biotechnology

October 8, 1999

Biotechnology is one of the most promising technologies to meet the challenges of the 21^st century, yet there is "a rising clamor on the part of some who would raise often erroneous questions" about the technology. A Commerce Department official also finds it "curious" that much of the clamor is coming from Europe.

David L. Aaron, under secretary for international trade at the Commerce Department, told the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade that Europe "has historically been the hot house of scientific advancement and rational thought. It is puzzling that European governments have turned their backs on the very science they nurtured in their treatment of biotech foods."

The European Union's reaction to U.S. biotechnology "is driven by misinformation, inconsistency and an absence of political leadership," says Aaron. "It is also retarding its own technological development." Yet three of the five multinationals that account for almost all the sales of biotech seeds in the world are European.

"Europe has no future if the United States is where the GMOs are invented, and Europe is where all the reasons not to use them are invented," he says.

A new European Commission may take a "fresh" approach to biotechnology. "But we also know that this issue is ripe for exploitation by protectionists, in Europe and in other countries around the world," Aaron told the panel. U.S. exports of corn to the EU have been almost eliminated, particularly the $200 million in annual sales to quotas for Spain and Portugal that were established to compensate the United States at the time those countries acceded to the EU.

"Let me be altogether clear about the importance of this issue," said Aaron. "We are facing one of the most complex and serious trade policy problems to emerge in recent years. Increasing agitation against biotechnology and biotech foods that started in Europe is beginning to spread to markets in Asia, Latin America, Australia and Canada. How well we negotiate, how well we ensure that new regulations on agricultural biotech products do not pose trade barriers, how well we deal with consumer concerns will affect the future of our agricultural and our biotechnology industries."