Media Release

12 September 2003

NZ First Amendment Retains Moratorium On GE Food

New Zealand First has today submitted an amendment to the New Organisms and Other Matters Bill which, if passed, will effectively retain the moratorium on release of GE food until 2005.

“It was New Zealand First which ensured the moratorium was put in place and we said at the time that we would reassess the situation when it came to its expiry date,” said spokesperson, Brian Donnelly.

“Our objective assessment is that it is too soon to lift the moratorium on GE foodstuffs and we continue to have concerns over economic risks, driven by consumer perceptions of health dangers of GE foods. As a nation critically dependent on the export of foodstuffs, New Zealand must have an extremely rigorous risk management process around organisms that might enter the human food chain.

“New Zealand First has a policy to proceed with extreme caution and ERMA has not demonstrated that it has the wherewithal to assess macroeconomic risks of release of GE foodstuffs,” said Mr Donnelly.

ENDS

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