Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

GMO’s in EU move a step closer (update on the 2010 story in #msg-52340585):

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/biotech-planting-flexibility-backed-by-eu-parliament-committee.html

The European Parliament’s environment committee endorsed a draft law that would give national governments an opt-out from rules making the EU a single market for goods. The aim is to accelerate approvals at EU level of applications to plant gene-modified seeds made by companies such as Monsanto Co. (MON)… Under current practices, national authorities throughout the EU have a say over approvals because the bloc’s common-market rules require that a product sold in one member be allowed for sale in the others.

…In a case brought by the U.S., Canada and Argentina, the World Trade Organization ruled in 2006 that the European moratorium was illegal. Since 2004, the EU has let new gene-modified products be imported for food and feed uses while stopping short of endorsing any request for cultivation with the exception of one application for a potato developed by BASF to be grown for the production of industrial starch.