December 17, 2003

Brazil President Signs GMO Soy Bill

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva paved the way for the plantation and sale of genetically modified soybeans for the 2003-04 season (October-September). Lula signed the bill on Monday.

Lula endorsed most of the key points of the bill, approved in November by Congress, allowing farmers to plant genetically modified organism seed held on farms up to Dec. 31 of this year, and sanctioning the sale of GMOs up till Jan. 31 2005. This last deadline can be extended for a further 60 days.

However, Lula vetoed a change to the original text made by Congress, which made the producers of the seed - Monsanto Co. in the case of the dominant RoundUp Ready GMO seeds - jointly liable with farmers for any future environmental or third-party damage caused by the seeds. The law, officially published Tuesday, lays responsibility for any damages exclusively with the farmers.

Other amendments to the provisional bill, which came into force in late September, were maintained.

This year's presidential decree allows the planting of GMOs for the first time in Brazil as the government sought to regulate the mass illegal planting in the south of the country.

Last year, the government passed a similar provisional decree allowing only the sale of GMOs.

The government hopes to pass a separate bill regulating GMO foods in the first half of next year, which they hope will resolve the five-year legal impasse but not necessarily allow the use of the technology.

Brazil will become the world's leading soybean exporter in 2004, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.