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All Imported Genetically Modified products to be labeled as GM |
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Wednesday, 17 May 2006 |
Since the withdrawal of Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) in India in 2001, the import of soyabean oil from North and South America increased to many fold. It is mainly because import duty on soyabean oil is the lowest among all the vegetable oils as it is limited by a low WTO bound rate of 45% (on reined or crude soya oil). But the soyebean oil has mainly been imported from Argentina and Brazil but it was never labeled as GM despite the fact that 70-80% production of Soybean in Argentina and Brazil are genetically engineered.
This decision was taken by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in its meeting on 2nd May 2006 where it was decided that all imported crude soyabean oils should carry a declaration "extracted from Roundup Ready Soyabean". The exporters should also certify that the products are safe and also instructed for a safe disposal of the byproducts after oil extraction. But here the GEAC has shown motivated concern and allowed only crude GM soy oil to be labeled and not all soyabean oil. We strongly oppose GEAC move to legalize the import of crude and refined GM soyabean oils.
The labeling of GM soya oil was made possible with the recent changes
by the Commerce Ministry in the foreign trade policy which called for
labeling of genetically engineered products. According to a
notification issued by director general of foreign trade (DGFT),
genetically modified (GM) products can be imported only with the prior
approval of the GEAC. If the consignment does not contain such a label
and is later found to contain traces of GM material, the importer is
liable for penal action under Foreign Trade (Development &
Regulation) Act, 1992.
Moreover the Ministry of Health, Government of India, is also in the
process of finalizing a proposal for introducing mandatory labeling of
genetically modified (GM) foods through amending the relevant
provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Rules, 1955.
But the Health Ministry is only concerned with the GM foods and its
proposal does not cover GMOs and GM materials meant for other purposes
e.g. GM feed, GM seed, GM planting materials. It is also a fact that in
India there are no adequate infrastructure at our ports for conducting
checks to find out whether the imported products are GM or Non-GM and
neither we have adequate facility for conducting quarantine checks and
sanitary and phytosanitary checks for imported products. It is a matter
of great concern that without setting up adequate testing facility at
our ports India has allowed imports of hazardous GM soya oil and other
GM products and hence putting at risk public health and environment. We
demand that adequate tests should be done in the country to establish
the safety of GM products to be approved for imports. Tests should
establish safety of health and environment. The process and results of
such tests should be made transparent and public. If such adequate
tests cannot be conducted in the country to establish health and
environment safety, the government should apply the precautionary
principles of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to deny imports of GM
products for food, feed, seed and plating materials.
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