‘If US stops lying about us, we’ll stop telling the truth about them’

Date: 23/01/03

By David Cronin

WASHINGTON'S claims that the EU is "letting people starve" in Africa by persuading them not to eat genetically-modified foods have been branded "lies" by the Union's development commissioner.

Poul Nielson was taking issue with statements by Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, who claimed earlier this month that famine-hit Zambia is reluctant to accept GM maize in aid because Europeans have "invented dangers" about biotechnology.

"According to our view, we don't see any problem with human consumption [of this food]," Nielson said on Monday (20 January). "We also made clear that it is not up to us or any other outside country to prescribe or dictate the policy of any other country.

"It has approached the point where I would be tempted to say that I'll propose a deal to the Americans to create a more normal situation. The deal would be if the Americans stop lying about us, we would stop telling the truth about them."

A Commission source said there was much anger over Zoellick's remarks voiced at last week's (15 January) weekly meeting of Romano Prodi's team. Pascal Lamy, the trade commissioner and, ironically, a personal friend of Zoellick, is understood to have proposed that the claims should be rebutted.

The row is part of a wider spat sparked by US irritation over the Union's four-year ban on imports of GM crops.

Nielson also described as "very strange" the US refusal to mill the maize which it has offered Zambia in aid so that it could be used solely for consumption, rather than planting as seed. The cost of milling will be met instead by the World Food Programme (WFP).

Zambia, which has imposed a ban on GM seeds, is the first port of call in Nielson's current trip to southern Africa (23-29 January). The Commission has donated some €35 million to the country in a bid to tackle starvation; the WFP estimates 3.4 million people need food aid to survive.

In war-ravaged Angola, he is due to sign a five-year development cooperation programme worth some €146 million.

Nielson will also discuss how EU-Africa tensions can be reduced when he meets South African ministers in Pretoria.

The tensions were most acute in November, when representatives of the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc pulled out of a joint parliamentary assembly with the EU in Brussels. They were protesting at how two Zimbabwean ministers had been prevented from attending the meeting because of EU sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime. Diplomatic efforts to improve Europe-Africa ties are set to intensify in the months preceding the EU-Africa summit, which is scheduled for 5 April in Lisbon.

Claims by Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, that famine-hit Zambia is reluctant to accept GM maize in aid because Europeans have 'invented dangers' about biotechnology have been branded 'lies' by Development Commissioner Poul Nielson.