CongressDaily | November 09, 1999 | by Jerry Hagstrom
Agriculture Department officials indicated today they still have not decided how to handle the issue of genetically modified organisms at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle that begins later this month. At a briefing on U.S. agriculture proposals, Foreign Agriculture Service Administrator Tim Galvin said the United States is proceeding with a two-tier approach on the GMO issue - bilateral negotiations with the European Union and an "interpretation" of existing WTO rules requiring that WTO member countries establish transparent, science-based systems for approving GMO products. Galvin said the primary negotiations are with the European Union, which has declined to approve more GMO products. But the United States would like a fallback position if negotiations with the Europeans fail. USDA officials also said today the United States has still not decided whether to support Canadian or Japanese proposals for a WTO working group on biotechnology - because the working group could "take several years" to reach any decisions.
Galvin repeated the list of previously announced U.S. goals, but also said the United States has "no specific position" on whether the "blue box" of agricultural subsidies should be abolished. The United States does not currently use subsidies that would fall into the blue box category - but Galvin said that it would if the United States returned to subsidies based on historic production. He also said the Clinton administration does not want to make a decision on the blue box without consulting with Congress. Galvin added the United States does not consider food donation programs to be one of the items "on the table" for negotiation.
Meanwhile, the House New Democrat Coalition, Democratic Leadership Conference President Al From and Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute held a news conference today to announce they will all have representatives in Seattle to promote the idea that "New Democrats" have a stronger pro-trade record than Republicans. With a clear eye toward the 2000 elections, the group released a scorecard showing that a higher percentage of New Democrats had voted for recent trade bills than the Republicans. From noted he had met with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney Monday, and said the DLC and labor continue to seek ways to achieve consensus on labor issues in trade agreements.
