GM corn talks

Aigner has been kept busy defending Germany's decision to ban the planting or sale of the seeds of MON810, a genetically modified strain of maize.

The maize, one of the oldest GM strains being cultivated, is extra resistant to crop destroying insects, but it has already raised concerns in several European Union countries that it might be damaging to the environment. Now it appears it may be damaging trans-Atlantic relations as well.

On her first trip to the United States, Aigner said talks with the US trade representative, Ron Kirk, and the chairman of the US Committee on Agriculture, Collin Peterson, had been constructive and that the US understood her standpoint, even if they didn't like it.

“The decision wasn't well received," Aigner said, "I think they saw this as a purely protectionist move."

Aigner reiterated her argument that Germany's position on MON810 has nothing to do with market protectionism. She said that recent studies showed that MON810 produced a substance toxic to predators, but also to other insects, and that the plant's pollen spread more widely than originally thought.

A German court said the government had presented enough evidence that the maize posed a risk, as laid out in genetic technology law to uphold the government's position. It said Berlin did not have to provide definitive scientific proof of a danger to the environment to justify outlawing the crop. Monsanto argues that the safety of MON810 has been demonstrated by the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Commission.

Some critics have said Aigner's decision is a political point-scoring exercise in an election year.

However Barbara Helfferich, an environmental officer with the European Commission, said Germany is within its rights to suspend the use of MON810.

“A country can invoke a safeguard clause if it has convincing new evidence that the product that is put on the market or planted poses a threat to the environment or the health of its citizens in the specificity of the context of the country,” she said.

Last month in Prague, at an informal meeting of EU environment ministers, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the EU would begin a review of Germany's decision to ban the genetically modified maize.

Monsanto has called Aigner's policy “capricious,” and the company is seeking to suspend the ban via an appeal to a higher German court and says it will eventually seek its permanent reversal.

Barbara Helfferich of the European Commission says that if Monsanto's bid fails, they will have to get their case heard by the highest authority, the World Trade Organisation.

“The next step would be that Monsanto would be asking the United States to go to the WTO," she said, "but that again is a question of European competence where we are following our own legislation and for the moment there is no reason to think that we are violating any of the WTO rules.”

Germany is the sixth EU country to introduce a provisional ban on MON810, following similar moves by France, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Greece. The European Commission had sought to force Austria and Hungary to reverse their bans on the crop, but its ruling was overturned by a majority of EU nations in March.

ch/dpa/AFP/AP

Editor: Chuck Penfold