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Another secret deal
The following came in under the radar before Christmas. The following statement from the ministry reads more like a propaganda piece than an official annoucement by the government department.
NZ food safety recognition by United States momentous
New
Zealand this week became the first country in the world to sign an
agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that
recognises each other’s food safety systems as providing a
comparable degree of food safety assurance.
The
Food Safety Systems Recognition Arrangement was signed at a
meeting in Washington DC by delegations from the Ministry for
Primary Industries (MPI) and FDA.
“This
is momentous for MPI as it is the first time the FDA has
recognised another country’s food safety system as comparable to
its own,” MPI Deputy Director General Standards Carol Barnao
says.
“The
arrangement with New Zealand is part of an overall strategy for
strengthening the global food safety net through closer
collaboration with regulators around the world, highlighted in
FDA’s report Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality,”
FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Food Michael R. Taylor says.
Ms
Barnao says both countries have done a huge amount of work ahead
of this week’s signing.
“This
process has included a comprehensive review of each country’s
relevant laws and regulations, inspection programmes, response to
food-related illness and outbreaks, compliance and enforcement,
and laboratory support,” Ms Barnao says.
“In
one calendar year FDA and New Zealand officials spent an intensive
period of time together including visiting production plants, cold
store facilities, verifiers and accreditation authorities looking
at the effectiveness of how each other’s preventative controls
and verification systems worked.”
Ms
Barnao explains that both countries intend to use the agreement to
lessen the potential regulatory burden for foods traded between
the countries by removing unnecessary duplication of activities.
The
agreement covers all foods and animal feeds regulated by the FDA,
which equates to $1.5 billion of New Zealand’s current exports
of primary products.
“Systems
recognition agreements are very important for MPI to help us achieve
one of our key strategic goals of maximising export opportunities
through other countries’ recognition of the credibility of our food
safety controls,” Ms Barnao says.
and the response from GE Free NZ...
New
Zealand Food Safety Undermined by Secret Deal with FDA
Tuesday,
18 December 2012, 4:18 pm
Press
Release: GE Free NZ
New
Zealand's international reputation for safe food is under threat as a
result of a secret deal signed last week with the US Food and Drug
Administration.
The
deal for mutual recognition of food safety regimes is being promoted
by government as a 'win' for New Zealand, but appears to be part of a
wider agenda to harmonise legislation and allow the smooth signing of
the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, aligned to the "one
U.S. Government" approach to importation and food safety.
This
deal is a dangerous and unprecedented move. It opens up New Zealand’s
biosecurity to increased risks, which is the price to pay for
delivering what the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) calls a
reduction in “regulatory burden for foods traded between the
countries”.
Around
the world New Zealand's reputation for safe food could be considered
to be better than that of the USA, which has a history of political
influence and compromise of scientific standards.
It
is the FDA which has recently approved GE fish to enter the food
chain untested and unlabelled, and which has turned a blind eye to
the entry of animal clone meat and milk products into the US food
chain. It is the FDA which years ago deliberately ignored the advice
of its own scientists by deeming GE foods to be 'substantially
equivalent' to normal food so avoiding proper regulation.(3)
The
issue of regulation of genetically engineered (GE) foods is dominated
by the US in this deal and will now have little if any New Zealand
consumer input.
There
is now a threat that New Zealand's labelling laws for GE will be
'gone by Christmas'. If the FDA deems a food safe, New Zealand has to
accept the ruling and will be forced to allow GE imports of novel GE
foods 'gene-stacked' to resist multiple herbicides including 2,4-D.
The
deal also hides a serious conflict of interest. The Deputy
Commissioner of the FDA is Michael Taylor, was also a lawyer for
Monsanto. On his watch all Monsanto GE foods have been deemed safe
regardless of the lack of safety data and concerns raised by
independent scientists.
The
MPI is also highly conflicted, as it has to advance a trade agenda
whilst also considering public health and safety.Unfortunately for
consumers and for New Zealand's reputation, it will be food safety
that is compromised to serve trade interests.
"With
the ever-rising problems associated with GE foods and crops the
situation is becoming one of the 'fox guarding the chicken house,'"
says Jon Carapiet, spokesman for GE-free NZ in food and environment.
"New
Zealand has in effect just given away its sovereignty, and its
control to import foods that can be assured as safe in the long
term."
This
deal is a nasty surprise for people in New Zealand and for our
markets overseas. New Zealand would be better to distance itself from
decades of the FDA's scientific compromises, degradation of the
integrity of the US food supply, and domination by industry
lobbyists.
The
deal threatens to increase trade in unregulated, unmonitored and
undesirable food products that are already part of the US food
landscape.
This
deal will not make food safer, but will limit New Zealand's capacity
to differentiate our products on the world stage.
[3]
Agency Contradicted Own Experts in Approving Genetically Engineered
Foods -- Misrepresented Facts in Order to Promote U.S. Biotech
Industry http://online.sfsu.edu/rone/GEessays/FDAdocuments.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22667305/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/fda-says-food-cloned-animals-safe/
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