Moscow/Vienna, September 16, 1999 --- The US is exporting genetically engineered maize to Russia in violation of Russian legislation revealed Greenpeace today in Vienna. Laboratory tests conducted for Greenpeace confirm that an US maize shipment to Russia in early August contained unauthorised Novartis GE maize.
"The US blatantly ignored Russian import laws and Novartis did not even bother to apply for an import permit for its GE maize even though it did that before importing it into the EU," said Ivan Blokov, Greenpeace Russia campaign director. "This goes to show once again that only tough international rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can stop the rogue traders of biotech. Illegal traffic of GMOs must be treated as a criminal offence."
The cargo carrier Blue Zenith arrived at St. Petersburg harbour on August 16 carrying 42,000 tonnes of US GE maize. Since the 1998 harvest of US GE and conventional crops were not segregated, all US shipments are still likely to contain GE grain. Some of the GE maize grown in US has not been approved for import in Europe.
The samples obtained by Greenpeace and analysed by the Federal Environment Agency of Austria show that the cargo contained Novartis Event 176 GE-maize which has been engineered to produce so called Bt-toxins. It also contains a resistance gene to antibiotic ampicillin and has been banned for import in Austria, Luxembourg and Norway.
The Russian government issued in July legislation, which requires permits, based on ecological assessment before genetically engineered crops can be imported into the country. In an interview with Greenpeace on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Health confirmed that Novartis did not apply for an import licence for its GE maize. The authorities have not indicated what action they intend to take to stop the further shipments. About 139,000 tonnes of maize have left the US since and are expected to arrive to Russia soon.
"Grain exporting countries like Canada, Argentina, Australia and the US have so far obstructed all progress in the Biosafety process," said Louise Gale, Greenpeace political advisor at the Vienna negotiations. "This is a classic example of how these countries want to dump their risky crops on unsuspecting countries and take no responsibility for the consequences."
