EU to allow sale of GM food product
In a controversial move, the European Union will allow a genetically modified food product to go on sale next month.
The decision will end the de facto five-year ban on new GM Products, Britain’s Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.
“There will be a development next month that will go some way to diffuse tension between the United States and Europe on GM food,” the newspaper quoted a senior EU trade source as saying.
The EU executive will take its first vote on a new GM product for five years in December when it decides whether or not to approve Bt-11 maize, marketed by Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta.
A “yes” vote would please the United States, which has pressured the bloc by launching a case against the ban at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Passions run high over biotech food. European consumer opposition to GM produce, estimated at more than 70 percent, still deters many supermarkets from stocking gene-spliced foods.