OTTAWA, ONTARIO - The Government of Canada, via Agriculture Canada, rejected once again mandatory labelling of genetically modified food, invoking "commercial factors" and "trade agreements" for this decision.

Agriculture Canada's response to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food Report, "Labelling of Genetically Modified Food and Its Impacts on Farmers", issued on November 1st without fanfare, confirms that the Government of Canada has given up its domestic authority on the topic to the biotech industry and the United States.

In response to Recommendation 4 of the Standing Committee report, which asked the government to assess the trade implications of labelling, Agriculture Canada responded that "the WTO and NAFTA agreements contain provisions related to labelling. Members are required to ensure that labelling regimes are not discriminatory and do not become unnecessary obstacles to trade."

The response ends by a statement according to which, "the Government will continue to support industry-led initiatives in a federal-provincial-territorial context under the Agricultural Policy Framework."

"We now have a government agency which, ON RECORD, states that it is unable to draft domestic policies because of NAFTA and the WTO," says Nadège Adam, biotechnology campaigner for the Council of Canadians. "In fact, the response goes as far as saying that it cannot give Canadians the mandatory labelling policy they want because of the American resistance."

The Council of Canadians has claimed for years that the signing of NAFTA would mean that Canada would be forsaking its sovereignty in key areas of its public policy. However, the federal government, in its response, interprets very broadly article 904.4 of NAFTA.

"The federal government is only trying to find a weak justification for its crawling before the U.S. Government and the Monsantos of the world. Labelling of GM food, in response to the public’s wishes and with respect to the precautionary principle, can certainly be showed to be a 'legitimate objective' in the sense of NAFTA. The labelling would affect all GM food, not only from American origin. NAFTA is only a convenient excuse for the government’s inaction," concludes Adam.

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