World Headlines
Saturday January 29 11:12 AM ET
Green Groups Applaud Intl Bio-Safety Trade Pact
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Environmental groups on Saturday applauded an agreement reached by international regulators in Montreal on regulating trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) used in food.
``This is a historic step toward protecting the environment and consumers from the dangers of genetic engineering,'' Benedikt Haerlin of Greenpeace said in a statement.
``These minimum safety standards must be implemented immediately,'' he said. ``And until the protocol has come into force all exports of GMOs should be prohibited.''
Friends of the Earth in a separate statement also heralded the agreement.
``For the past week the United States and its cronies have been holding the rest of the world to ransom to protect the vested interests of a few companies,'' it said.
``They have not succeeded and now we have a protocol to regulate genetically modified crops and foods.'':
