National Journal's CongressDaily
United Kingdom Agriculture Minister Nick Brown told a Brookings Institution forum today the agricultural text developed at December's failed World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle "is an excellent basis for multilateral negotiations, and is a clear indication of the likely direction that the agricultural negotiations ... will take once a broader round has been launched." Brown said the last agricultural text or "something very close to it would have been agreed to at Seattle if a wider package launching a round had been ready." But Brown acknowledged the United Kingdom's views on the changes in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and trade liberalization are not shared by a majority of the EU member countries. Brown said he made the speech partly because"tensions within the European Union" are not always discussed publicly as much as they should be. Trade Representative Barshefsky said late last week that EU Trade Minister Pascal Lamy had told her 12 of the 15 member states would not have agreed to the agricultural text.
Brown's views on trade appeared to be in line with Agriculture Secretary Glickman, with whom Brown is meeting today — but Brown disagreed significantly with U.S. officials in his enthusiasm for mandatory food labeling. Brown said he favors mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods, including the listing of consumer benefits from genetic modification in the particular food. If a labeling scheme is voluntary or says only that a food "may contain" genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, they will have no future in the United Kingdom, he said, because public sentiment is so strongly against GMOs. Brown said, "Consumers want and are entitled to informed choice." He added there is increasing pressure in the United Kingdom for labeling of livestock's origin — so consumers may buy from sources they believe treat animals decently and on regional origin of foods.
Brown said he also favors resolving the dispute between the United States and the European Union over the importation of U.S. hormone-fed beef by allowing "market forces" to work along with labeling the meat, rather than give U.S. producers increased access to the EU hormone-free market. Brown noted, however, that the United Kingdom could not impose labeling schemes itself because all food labeling in Europe must now be done at the EU level. — by Jerry Hagstrom:
