Page 109 - Breeding and regulatory opportunities, Renaud

Seed Regulation in the US, EU and Mexico

achieves 100% organic seed for certain crops and the US does not? On the one

hand, organic growers in the US would be able to produce crops at lower cost

by not having to use organic seed and would have a broader genetic diversity

to choose from. Growers in the EU would continue to pay more for their seed

than their US counterparts but also have access to a greater variety of organic

seed. Because the integrity of the organic value chain is what safeguards its

market position, US growers might ind an increasing number of markets closed

to them.

There is no certainty that market-led competition would be suicient to drive

the regulatory regimes of the US, the EU and Mexico toward convergence

(Ogus, 1995) and there is no overarching governance body that could compel

harmonization. The stakeholders in our study nonetheless are attempting to

formulate a better-coordinated response to the dilemmas highlighted in this

article. The Mexican Seed Trade Association (AMSAC) in 2009 set up its own

task force to identify legitimate ways for organic untreated seed to be imported

into Mexico. The American Seed Trade Association’s (ASTA) organic committee

has been working with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

under the USDA to identify priority crops and potential seed-borne disease risks,

testing procedures and treatments, as the basis for proposing to SAGARPA a risk

assessment procedure that could secure entry of untreated seed of suicient

phytosanitary quality (ASTA, 2011), and form the basis of a bi-lateral trade

agreement. The Dutch government in 2010 sent a broadly composed organic

stakeholder delegation to Mexico to discuss trade-related issues and determine

next steps. The Dutch stakeholders carried out a risk analysis of potential seed-

borne diseases and treatments of the major organic export crops, in order to

demonstrate to SAGARPA that Dutch seed intended for export to Mexico meets

international phytosanitary standards and to develop a bilateral agreement for

organic seed importation. Ad hoc groups of growers and other stakeholders

have met in both Mexico and the US to facilitate progress on these issues. Could

multilateral institutions evolve to take into consideration the compatibility

of global organic and phytosanitary standards? The signing of an organic

equivalency arrangement between the EU and the US (15 Feb 2012) might

ofer new opportunities for resolving the tensions in organic seed regulation

(Haumann, 2012), although phytosanitary issues fall outside this agreement and

into the realm of the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO).

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