Fears over quality of imported foods [1]
Monday, March 20, 2000 - 12:00. Updated on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 - 14:46.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 1, March 2000.
Government will have to introduce new legislation and a mechanism in order to check the quality of goods that are imported into Tonga, once a United Nations agreement on the use of genetic engineering takes effect later this year.
A major concern world-wide is currently the abuse and the misuse of genetic engineering by companies in their food production processes for the sake of securing a bigger profit margin, and disregarding the negative effects it may have on the environment and the health of people.
To curb this trend, which may accelerate as more countries are becoming members of the World Trade Organisation, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was presented to the UN Rio Summit on Environment at Rio De Janerio in 1992. Since the Convention was introduced, negotiations and conferences have been held over a Protocol, which would authorise the implementation of the Convention.
Uilou Samani, head of the environment division of Tonga’s Ministry of Lands, who attended the latest Conference of Parties to the Protocols, in Montreal, Canada, from January 24-28 this year, said that the Protocol was finally approved, “and it will be signed in Nairobi in May, and presented to the United Nations in June.”
Uilou said that it had been a long battle by signatories to the Convention to get the Protocol approved and signed. One of the major obstacles was that the USA is not a signatory to the Convention, but because it is one country that possesses most of the knowledge in genetic engineering it holds a domineering position on how this technology is used. The USA is also right behind the WTO and the concept of Free Trade.
Tonga is a signatory to the Convention and Uilou said that once the Protocol was signed, government would have to introduce new legislation and a mechanism in order to check the quality of goods that are imported into the country. He said that plans were well under way and the UN had already set up an administrative office in Montreal, and a Clearing House which would be a focal point for members.
Uilou said that the use of genetic engineering to manipulate the growth of plants and animals had been going on for a number of years, and its impact had already got into the food chain. A Bio Safety Protocol was needed to regulate and to have some control over the use of genetic engineering to manipulate the genes of living organisms.
The main objective of the Protocols was to ensure an adequate level of protection in the field on the safe transfer, handling and the use of living modified organisms. These modified organisms result from modern biotechnology and may have adverse effect on the conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity.