| Open
letter to Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO
12/10/2005 — Dear Pascal, more than
a year ago, the US government teamed up with Canada and
Argentina to complain to the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) about the people of Europe.
Europeans are simply too democratic,
according to the US government, and public opinion really
ought not to be allowed to overrule trade regulations.
The issue at question is the European Union's (EU) de
facto moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs),
as well as a number of EU member states' national bans
on GMOs.
In poll after poll, Europeans have
stated they don't want to eat genetically contaminated
foods, they don't want them grown here, and they don't
want them fed to the animals that produce their eggs,
milk, and meat.
Even an ex-executive of the biotech
giant Monsanto believes the dangers of GMOs are being
ignored in the rush to push GMOs onto consumers. We recently
released details of massive GMO contamination of the Romanian
environment that the Romanian government didn't even know
about.
Mr. Dima, ex-general manager of Monsanto
Romania said, "I left the company because I expressed
my concerns regarding the introduction of GM technology
in Romania. I believed that neither Romania nor the company
were ready and able to monitor and control the GM technology".
To the US and its allies, this is
simply a trade dispute. But at base it's a more fundamental
issue of who makes the rules - the people of Europe or
the unelected WTO and the corporate empire that runs it.
We're aiming to have a one million
signature petition by May 2006 on the single issue of
whether to ban the importation of GMO animal feed into
Europe. So far, we've gotten 320,000 and rising fast.
If the WTO and the three complaintants
are so confident that they have the right to determine
what food gets put on the dinner tables of Europe, we
want to know where your petition is?
Where's the evidence that Europeans
want GMOs? What makes you think that people who wouldn't
feed GMOs to pigs want to have them force-fed to their
children?
When democracy and the will of the
people is considered expendable, Free Trade isn't free:
it's corporate tyranny. |
