In
America's masterplan is to force GM food on the world by John Vidal in the
Guardian we see further how the WTO as a trade regulatory agency continues to push forward policies which support neo-liberal economic agendas at cost to the people and environment.
Framed as an attempt to force EU countries to accept US made GM foods
three judges emerged after years of secret deliberation to rule that Europe had imposed a de facto ban on GM food imports between 1999 and 2003, violating WTO rules.
...
but in true WTO style no one has been allowed to know what. A few bureaucrats in the US, EU, Argentina and Canada have reportedly seen the full 1,045-page report, and an edited summary of some of its conclusions has been leaked. But no one, it seems, will take responsibility for the ruling, which may force the EU to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate some of the world's most heavily subsidised farmers, and could change the laws of at least six countries that have imposed GM bans.
Now, this doesn't necessarily force the EU to allow Monsanto seeds or products i, but rather stands as a precedent by which the US can force their products on other"under-developed" countries.
It is now clear that the real reason the US took Europe to the WTO court was was to make it easier for its companies to prise open regulatory doors in China, India, south-east Asia, Latin America and Africa, where most US exports now go. This is where millions of tonnes of US food aid heads, and where US GM companies are desperate to have access, buying up seed companies and schmoozing presidents and prime ministers.
And here's where I think it starts to get really interesting:
More than two-thirds of exported US corn now goes to Asia and Africa, where once it went to Europe. As the Monsanto man said this week about the WTO ruling: "Our feeling is that it's important for countries other than the EU to have science-based regulatory frameworks."[emphases mine]
Who the hell is this THE Monsanto Man? And what are these so-called "science-based regulatory frameworks" but another way of imposing neo-colonialist forms of economic coersian through ownership of seed, fertilizers, pesticides and technologies? Well, anyways luckily there is resistance:
Like the tobacco industry, GM companies are now focusing almost exclusively on developing countries. But here the industry is meeting stiff opposition from powerful unions and farming groups. Brazil has caved in, but Bolivia may shortly become the first Latin American country to fully reject GM. Some Indian states are deeply opposed, and there have been major demonstrations in the Philippines, Korea, Indonesia and elsewhere. India's largest farmers' organisation this week said the result of the WTO verdict would be that the US would become more aggressive in dumping GM food on to developing countries.
The US maintains that through the WTO it has won a great victory for free trade, and passed a significant milestone in US attempts "to have GM crops accepted throughout the world". Perhaps, but the battle is far from won, and in the meantime anyone opposing the crops is being reclassed as an enemy of America.[emphasis mine]
Whohoa! an enemy to the US, what's this? The author closes with this graf:
Within hours of the WTO decision, José Bové, the French farmer who has led European protests, arrived in New York to give an invited talk to Cornell students about GM food - and was immediately sent back to France by the US government.
I don't know how to think this last bit ... just kinda speechless.