FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2005
Media Contact: Alise Kowalski (202) 225-3329

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Chairman Bob Goodlatte met with several European Members of Parliament, government officials, and industry leaders this week regarding biotechnology and trade barriers to U.S. agriculture exports to the European Union. The EU's refusal to import biotech products costs the United States roughly $300 million a year in corn exports alone.

At each meeting Chairman Goodlatte stressed the safety of biotech foods and safety measures used in the U.S. to validate the safety of food. "I offer myself and 290 million Americans as examples of people who have consumed biotech products for the last ten years," the Chairman said to Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and members of the EU Parliament.

Several biotech industry representatives cited grocery retailers in Europe as the largest obstacle to biotech products making it onto the shelves. The European Commission's Traceability and Labeling regulations set up a system to trace biotech products, introduced the labeling of biotech feed and reinforced the current labeling rules on biotech food, with labeling threshold of 0.9 percent. According to many, these regulations impose a great financial burden on agricultural and food businesses in the U.S., presenting a significant trade barrier to the United States.

"The U.S. has enjoyed the benefits of biotech agricultural products for the past 10 years. We are able to produce crops that are resistant to insects and disease and therefore provide higher yields for our farmers and lower prices to our consumers, all the while providing a vast safe, nutritious selection of food products. We are also able to donate this food to other countries who need food aid to feed their people. Unfortunately, in recent years, Europe's unfounded and misplaced mistrust of biotech food products has spread to the governments of some developing countries that have refused biotech food aid and chosen the alternative of hunger for their people. This is both unreasonable and tragic," said Chairman Goodlatte.

In 2004, 80 percent of all soybean and 40 percent of corn acres in the U.S. were planted with biotech seed varieties. Between 1998 and 2004, the EU and its member states approved no agricultural biotechnology products. As of January 2005, over 20 biotech products or crops were awaiting approval. While two biotech products have been recently approved, the EU is obligated under WTO rules to maintain timely approval processes and make decisions based on science.

The process continues to remain slow and opposition to biotech products has not been based on science.

"Biotechnology provides many advantages for people all over the world from increasing crop yields and economic stability in developing countries to feeding the hungry. Dr. Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner and architect of the green revolution once said "The affluent nations can afford to adopt elitist positions and pay more for the food produced by so-called natural methods; the 1 billion chronically poor and hungry people of this world cannot. New technology will be their salvation, freeing them from obsolete, low-yielding, and more costly production technology." I could not agree more. We have the technology to assist developing countries and we cannot permit the inaccurate assumptions made by some elitist nations to guide the decisions of these developing countries," Chairman Goodlatte said.

Along with Chairman Goodlatte, Agriculture Committee Members Tom Osborne, R-NE, Gil Gutknecht, R-MN, Robin Hayes, R-NC, Mike McIntyre, D-NC, Bob Etheridge D-NC, and Stephanie Herseth, D-ND, participated in the meetings with European officials and concurred with the Chairman's position.