BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

U.S. outlines ag trade negotiating position

June 29, 2000 7:00 AM UTC

The U.S. will insist that rules for new technologies, including biotechnology, under any new international agricultural trade agreement are "transparent, predictable, and timely," according to an outline of the U.S. negotiating position released Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky. The proposal will be presented Friday to the World Trade Organization's Committee on Agriculture, which is working to launch a new world trade agreement on agriculture. A new WTO agreement, which will be dominated by disputes over allowable levels of export subsidies and tariffs, is expected to take several years to negotiate.

Barshefsky said the U.S. will try to ensure that any new agreement "facilitates trade in biotech [products] when they have been proven safe by science-based regulations." Agriculture Department officials said the U.S. will fight European proposals to allow countries to regulate international trade in biotech products on the basis of social or economic considerations. ...