Sofia, Bulgaria
November 7, 2009

By Alexander Golikov, Executive Secretary, Black Sea Biotechnology Association

This is the author’s personal view, which does not represent an official position of the Black Sea Biotechnology Association and is not necessarily shared by all its members.

The news on the “suddenly” adopted Turkish regulation that literally bans imports of GMO’s into Turkey became hit of the day on November 6, 2009. Is there anything unique in the regulatory situation except for the estimate of 1 billion dollars volume of yearly imports of biotech products (cotton, soybeans, corn and their derivatives)?

The answer will most probably be “no”. Inconsistency with internationally recognized risk assessment procedures and not-yet established committee to make decisions is unfortunately quite a common practice in non-biotech countries though it is exactly what takes any common sense out of regulatory system. Still it is a good proof to that efficient regulations could be set only along with hands-on experience in doing biotechnology.

Ukraine seems to be leader in the number of biotech regulatory acts approved this year and in the speed of building its national regulatory framework, which is at least understandable, though with a lot of question marks (zero tolerance, yet-to-be established bodies and adopted guidelines...). Or... it was until recently, when the two Draft Laws of Ukraine “On banning the use of genetically modified organisms in Ukraine” (Nr. 5286 from 28.10.2009) and “On declaring the territory of Ukraine free of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s)” (Nr. 5286-1 from 03.11.2009) were accepted by the Ukrainian Parliament for consideration. The second Draft Law appears to be lateral to the first one - a political or populist declaration justified by worries that consumption of GMO’s “may lead to unforeseen consequences”, which appeals to the Precautionary Principle without any knowledge or understanding of the Principle itself.

On the contrary the first Draft Law triggers a series of questions, most of them can hardly be answered meaningfully.

Thus preamble says - “Taking into account that in accordance with the article 3 of Constitutional document of Ukraine a human being, his life and health, are recognized in Ukraine as the highest social value, with the purpose of guaranteeing the civil right to safe food, this Law this Law sets the ban for use in Ukraine of genetically modified organisms and products derived from the genetically modified organisms”. In a couple of lines below it Article 3 says - “Any use of genetically modified organisms and products derived from the genetically modified organisms is forbidden in Ukraine, except for their production for export.” Does it mean that the author of the draft reads the Ukrainian Constitutional document in a way that only  Ukrainian residents should be considered as “the highest social value”, thus only they shall be protected from “GMO threat” by the Ukrainian Law? Or is it disguised recognition of already existing massive production of GM crops and inability to do anything about it, just to legalize them for export purposes only? What to do with co-existence issues then, not to say about the established zero tolerance for labeling? 

Article 4 says - “The import to custom territory of Ukraine of genetically modified organisms and products derived from the genetically modified organisms is forbidden, except for such that are intended for research purposes or state approbation (trials).” Well done! Of course if the goal is to stop seed business in Ukraine by make farmers grow GM crops for export using only seed imported through the state approbation procedure. It is interesting wether the drafter had assessed the economic impact of the Act on the product cost.

The crucial question is implementability of the proposed order, though the core sense might be hidden exactly there - setting the country GMO free along with zero tolerance opens access to state budget finance to organize and exclusively implement technical supervision over GMO’s in “all and every”.

The citizens will happily pay for feeling protected with sense...