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April 6, 2001

Corn Growers seek to
break regulatory logjam

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Board recently met with White House staff to explain trade benefits of breaking up the regulatory logjam of biotech corn hybrids awaiting approval in the European Union (EU).

"The EU's regulatory moratorium has cost U.S. corn growers $200 million each year since 1998," pointed out Fred Yoder, Plain City, Ohio, farmer and chairman of the NCGA Biotechnology Working Group. "And, the EU is drafting new rules that threaten to disrupt more trade."

Yoder and the Corn Board made their points during a meeting in the White House West Wing with Gary Edsen, assistant to the president for international economic affairs. Edsen is also a member of the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. NCGA explained the effect the regulatory bottleneck has on U.S. trade and urged the new administration to place a high priority on solving this problem. Also, Yoder emphasized that the EU has taken more than four years, enough time to earn a college degree, to review biotech corn hybrids. And, the product approvals are still pending, he said.

"The EU system is just not functioning. Since August 1998 the EU has failed to complete the procedures to market a single crop product created through biotechnology. The EU officials have played politics and ignored the EU's own regulations as well as the World Trade Organization obligations," he noted.