At a meeting of the signatories to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Brazil, one of the leading producers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) used in foods, proposed a global regime in which foods with GMOs are labelled "contains GMO."

However, in the initiative signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian government called for a four-year transition period to protect producers from the costs and complications of identifying whether GMOs are present in raw materials.

During the four-year interim, Brazil proposed that foods can be labelled "may include GMOs".

The proposal will be discussed by delegates of the members of the Cartagena Protocol meeting this week in Curitiba in southern Brazil in their third forum seeking an accord on the handling and use of GMO or transgenic crops.

Conference secretary Cyrie Sendanshonga said the terms of Brazil's proposal remain flexible.

"Brazil is very active in diplomacy and has very skillful diplomats who can still revise their position," he said.

Previous conferences, in Kuala Lumpur in 2004 and Montreal in 2005, failed to produce an agreement on rules for GMO foods.

The protocol, an outgrowth of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, aims to ensure safety in the use of organisms modified by biotechnology that might impact the environment and human health.

It was enacted in 2003 after being adopted in January 2000 after four years of negotiation. It has been signed by 132 countries.

Five countries -- the United States, Argentina, Brazil, China and Canada -- comprise 95 percent of the world's farmlands planted with transgenic foods.

Two of them, Argentina and the United States, are not party to the protocol and maintain that labelling rules like the Brazil proposal could frighten consumers and generate a new type of protectionism.

According to the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace, transgenic foods have appeared in 39 countries over the past 10 years, mainly in commercial crops like maize, soybeans, cotton and rapeseed.

On Tuesday Greenpeace said US foods giant Heinz was selling baby cereal in China and Hong Kong that contained genetically modified rice, and urged the company to withdraw the product.

Related Links
-