EU to force GMO counter-test over US rice shipments

The European Union is set to adopt a decision imposing a mandatory counter-test to US rice imports over concerns that they could be contaminated with the unauthorised GMO LLRICE601.

Talks between the EU and the US broke down on Thursday (19 October) after the two failed to agree on a common approach to certify US rice as GMO-free.

A proposal to impose a counter test on all imports of long grain rice from the US will be submitted for approval by the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain next Monday, the Commission said. The tests will be carried out by national authorities in the member states at the costs of exporters, the Commission indicated.

The measures are being taken after it emerged in August that the unauthorised GM rice LL601, a variety engineered by Bayer CropScience, had been shipped to the EU and placed on supermarket shelves as early as January. Systematic checks at EU borders were imposed as a result (EURACTIV, 24 Aug. 2006).

“The tests [costs] will be for the exporters’ to bear,” said Philip Tod, the Commission’s spokesperson for health and consumer issues. “Only if the counter-tests confirm the absence of LLRICE601 or any other unauthorised GMO will [the shipment] be released,” he added.

The test will also apply to LLRICE62, another unauthorised GM rice variety detected recently by French authorities.

Tod further said that the issue was not so much about the GMO variety posing a threat to public health. “This is an unauthorised GMO which has not been evaluated and authorised in the EU,” he explained.

Officials at the US mission to the EU declined to comment, saying a statement may come out from Washington at a later stage.

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