Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 3 • 21st February 2002

Government Panel To Review Brazil’s GMO Policy

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The government of Brazil has set up an inter-ministerial committee to review the country’s rules on labelling products containing genetically modified organisms (GMO). In particular, the committee will reassess a federal decree issued in July 2001 which requires all packaged food with a GMO content of more than 4 percent to be labelled by 2002, and will review the size and wording of such labels. While the decree was scheduled to enter into force on 31 December 2001, its introduction has now been delayed as a result of the revision. The committee is expected to take approximately three months to complete its review. At the same time, Brazil’s Congress is debating more stringent labelling regulations as part of a broader biotechnology bill.

As the world’s second largest soy producer accounting for 20 percent of global supply, Brazil is the only major agricultural exporting country that does not use GM technology (see BRIDGE Trade BioRes, 24 January 2002). Government approval of GMOs has been put on hold following a number of injunctions issued by Brazil’s Federal Court which amount to what is termed a "judicial moratorium" on the commercial release of GMOs. Despite the moratorium, illegally planted GMO soy is becoming increasingly widespread, in particular in Brazil’s South due to smuggling of seeds from Argentina. The share of GM soy is now thought to amount to as much as half of the total crop in some areas, leading many traders to avoid Southern ports. Some have expressed concerns that this trend might endanger exports to key markets, including the EU and China. "75 percent of soy exports from Rio Grande do Sul [in Brazil's South] go to China," said a soybean trader from the area. "If they stopped importing out soy we would be ruined."

Background

At the WTO, labelling requirements for GMOs are covered by the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) which allows governments to introduce TBT regulations if they are necessary to fulfil legitimate objectives, including "protection of human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment". In addition, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) covers packaging and labelling requirements directly related to food safety. The Agreement allows WTO Members "in cases where relevant scientific evidence is insufficient" to provisionally adopt SPS measures. In such cases, Members are instructed to seek to obtain additional information necessary for a more objective risk assessment "within a reasonable period of time". Both Agreements stipulate that any measures should not be more trade-restrictive than necessary. Some argue that labelling requirements for GMOs are unnecessarily trade-restrictive (and therefore not admissible under the TBT and SPS Agreements) due to the high cost of segregating GMOs from non-GMOs. Others also believe that there is not enough evidence of threats of GMOs to human health and the environment to justify labelling requirements.

"Brazil may fine farmers for illegal GM soy," REUTERS, 7 February 2002; "Brazil creates GMO Labeling Committee to clear legal questions," DOW JONES, 7 February 2002.