LARSON: BIOTECH TOO IMPORTANT TO IGNORE
September 19, 2003
Crop Biotech Update
Science-based regulation of agricultural biotechnology contributes to the
free trade of safe biotech applications and to the appropriate use of this
technology to promote development. Hence, biotechnology is one of the most
promising new technologies and is too important for the world to ignore. So
says Alan Larson, United States Undersecretary of State for Economic,
Business and Agricultural Affairs.
In a paper entitled Trade and Development Dimensions of U.S. International
Biotechnology Policy, Larson adds that restrictions on the development and
use of biotechnology-derived products threaten the international trading
system and are preventing developing countries from exploring the
technologyšs potential to improve peoplešs lives.
Larson says that the only way to maintain a free and fair trading system, is
for products traded in that system to be regulated in a logical, objective
and science-based manner. Only when such a system is in place can we have
confidence in the safety of the products we trade. How biotechnology-derived
crops are treated in the international system will have consequences not
just for biotechnology but also for all new technologies.
Read the full article online at
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/ite...ee/larson/htm.