Gov't not to require labeling genetic engineering
OTC 28.12.97 08:13
TOKYO, Dec. 28 (Kyodo) -- The agriculture ministry will cancel a
plan to require farm producers to indicate on their product
labels whether or not the goods were developed with the use of
genetic engineering technology, ministry sources said Sunday.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry responded to
U.S. criticism, especially from soybean producers eyeing the
Japanese market, that obligatory labeling of such products would
constitute a nontariff trade barrier, the sources said.
The ministry also considered the opposition from domestic
producers and distributors concerned about possible additional
investment costs required to meet the proposed rule, the sources
said.
The farm ministry will instead issue a nonbinding administrative
instruction to clarify if the produces were genetically
engineered, a policy likely to draw criticism from some Japanese
consumer and health groups, the sources said.
The government will present its latest food policy to a joint
food standards meeting between the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to be
held in Canada at the end of next May, the sources said.
The Japanese government has already endorsed 20 foodstuffs under
six categories as products developed on the basis of gene
recombination technology that are marketable in the country.
These products, most of them imported, include soybeans which
will not rot due to exposure to herbicides and maize which is
capable of killing insects eating it.
In addition to the U.S., Canada has been opposed to labeling
requirements, while the European Union conditionally supports
mandatory labeling.
The WHO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) say gene engineering in the agricultural
sector should be approved if the new products' contents remain
basically the same as they were before genetic engineering.
The long-term effects on human bodies and the environment have
yet to be determined.
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