Agence France Presse May 10, 2001
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's ban on genetically modified (GM) food was Thursday attacked by a US agricultural official who said there was no credible scientific evidence to justify the Colombo government's action.
Weyland Beeghly, the agricultural counsellor for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, told reporters here Thursday that Sri Lanka was the only country to have imposed a total ban on GM food.
"Even though it will affect only four percent of US agricultural exports to Sri Lanka, we believe it is totally unwarranted," Beeghly said.
"There is a view in some circles that this is a very risky technology and that the US is testing it on the poor populations of developing countries. This is both false and offensive."
Beeghly, who is resident in New Delhi, said GM foods occupied more than one-third of the shelf space of US supermarkets.
Sri Lanka's ban on GM food went into effect from the beginning of this month, but importers have asked for more time to implement it, trade officials here said.
The new law introduced by the health ministry bans all imports of raw and processed food in 21 categories if they have been genetically modified.
But importers are worried about the practicalities of enforcing the new rules.
"We have asked the ministry to give us a transition period so we can gather the necessary certificates" from exporting countries, said S. R. Balachandra, spokesman for the National Chamber of Commerce.
He said other nations simply put labels on products that contain GM ingredients so consumers still have a choice.
To comply with the legislation, importers must obtain official proof from exporting countries' health authorities confirming their products are non-GM.
Beeghly said genetic modification held great promise for protecting the environment as well as improving harvests of food.
"In the US, the use of insecticide has declined significantly with the adoption of GM cotton varieties," he said. "The same is true of maize."
"Scientists are now working to develop a maize variety which will take free nitrogen out of the atmosphere and fix it in the soil where it can be taken up by the plant.
"This would eventually reduce or eliminate the need for large applications of chemical fertiliser, some of which ends up polluting our waterways."
Sri Lanka's two main business chambers, the National Chamber of Commerce and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce are studying how the GM ban will affect importers.
Many complained they were not given enough time to gather the necessary proof from foreign health authorities and called for at least another two months.
Some 60 percent of imported food contains GM organisms, importers said.
"Most of the food is genetically manipulated in one way or the other and it would cost more to demand genetically unspoiled products," a spokesman for the importers said.
"If the importer cannot get the certificate because the food is GM, then he has to change the source of his product," Ceylon Chamber of Commerce spokesman Stanley Jayawardena said.
"The products themselves have not been banned, only the method of production. There will be some level of protest initially, but eventually the importers will change.":
