EU Moves to Impose Food Label Standards

The European Union on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a plan that would for the first time set standards for labeling food made from genetically modified crops.

The action, which is being viewed cautiously by U.S. trade officials, is part of an escalating battle that at times has threatened to erupt into a major trade dispute. While European consumers have rebelled against the genetically altered crops, the U.S. has argued that there is no health-related or scientific reason to reject these foods and that efforts to do so are simply intended to protect European farmers from U.S. competition.

But the U.S. has not rejected the idea of labeling if done for legitimate reasons and if standards are reasonable.

“We have indicated that we are prepared to work with these countries,” U.S. Special Trade Negotiator Peter L. Scher said Thursday after the European Union’s action in Brussels. “We want to ensure [that] if labeling is imposed, it is done in a way that does not restrict trade or inhibit the sale of these products.”

The proposal, which won the backing of the member nations of the European Union, must be approved by its governing body, the European Commission, before going into effect.

The proposed law would require labels on all foods that contain more than 1% genetically modified ingredients. No label would be required if the producers can show that a food is 99% free of these constituents.

The European Union already has a labeling law on the books, Scher said, but because there are no scientific standards to determine what the term “genetically modified food” means, it has not been enforced. The Japanese government is now developing standards for possible labeling.

Scher said that until U.S. officials have studied the latest proposal from Europe, they would not have an official response. “We’d like to see what the standards do,” he said.

The Commerce Department’s undersecretary for trade, David Aaron, told Reuters: “We welcome the fact that they’re establishing a threshold, because we’ve been pushing it for more than a year. Without it, the threshold was effectively zero, and that was ridiculous.”

But he added that a 1% standard might be too difficult a scientific hurdle, given the possibilities of accidental mixing of grains and the limits to the accuracy of current tests.

More than 50% of U.S. soybeans and more than 30% of American corn are from seeds that have been genetically modified. These are grains in which genes from other species have been transferred into conventional seeds to protect the plants from weedkillers or to introduce natural pesticides.

Opponents of genetically engineered food worry that the crops have not been adequately tested and that the features that have been added--such as pesticide resistance--could create environmental problems or cause unexpected alterations to the foods.

Times wire services were used in compiling this report.