Australia welcomes Sri Lanka suspending GM food ban
Date: 07-Sep-01
Country: AUSTRALIA
Minister Warren Truss said Australia's main concerns were that the proposed regulations were not substantiated by scientific analysis or a comprehensive risk assessment process.
"The ban also threatened to disrupt Australian agricultural and food exports to Sri Lanka worth more than A$100 million (US$52 million) a year," he said.
The Australian government had made several high-level representations over the past few months to key ministers and officials in the Sri Lankan government, Truss said.
"We strongly urged the Sri Lankans not to implement the ban. We also sought to assure them of the safety of Australia's high-quality agricultural and food exports," he said.
That included providing a formal submission to the Sri Lankan Health Minister, and other key ministries, to help improve the understanding in that country of Australia's food safety regulatory system, he said.
The government also highlighted the fact that the safety assessment system for Australian and imported GM foods was considered one of the world's most comprehensive and scientifically rigorous, he said.
"We stressed that what is safe for sale in Australia should also be considered safe for sale in Sri Lanka," he said.
