Viewpoint: Japan and South Korea’s bans on Canadian wheat over GMOs is ‘political stunt’ to lower prices

CanadaWheat Embedded
Image: World-Grain.com

In mid-June 2018, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that a few GM wheat plants had been detected in southern Alberta, amounting to no more than a handful of seeds. Using Canada’s science-based risk assessment system, the CFIA clearly stated, “[t]here is also no evidence that this wheat has entered the food or animal feed system, nor is it present anywhere else in the environment. Health Canada and the CFIA have performed risk assessments of this finding, and have concluded that it does not pose a food safety, animal feed, or environmental risk.”

…

In spite of the scientific reassurance of this detection by the CFIA, the governments of Japan and South Korea have banned Canadian wheat imports. The blame for this can be laid directly on the doorstep of eNGOs and foreign governments playing politics with food safety and international commodity trade…It is likely a convenient excuse to block Canadian wheat supply with the hope of driving down the price of Canadian wheat. Canada produces some of the worlds best milling wheat for flour and baking, so the Japanese and South Korean governments are hoping that their actions will reduce the price of Canadian wheat and then they would be able to purchase their supply at a lower price. Blatant politics affecting international trade, which is a violation of the World Trade Organizations rules.

Read full, original article: The Politics of Food Safety

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