New Delhi workshops July 2007

The Indian aspect of this project was divided into three workshops. The first two of these were held in;

• India International Center, New Delhi 17-18 July, 2007, New Delhi
• Delhi University, New Delhi 26- 27 July, 2007

The workshops were essentially capacity building exercises for civil society. The purpose was to familiarize civil society actors with the outcome of the EU-US trade dispute on trade in GM crops; to discuss the content of the WTO ruling in the dispute case and to assess and evaluate the implications of this ruling on the inherent flexibilities available to developing countries in taking decisions on the trans border movement of GMOs.

The first workshop was run by GeneWatch UK and Gene Campaign. The participants were from a wide range of organisations around India. The included presentations and discussions on;

• The WTO Biotech ruling and its impact.
• The current issues within the European Union with regard to GMOs
• The problems of implementing labelling and traceability legislation within India and the international and trade issues this raises.
• Detailed presentations on experiences of using the Indian Right to Information Act
• An exploration of the differing methods civil society groups have used to campaign and raise awareness of issues surrounding GMOs

The second workshop was organised in collaboration with the Food, Trade and Nutrition Coalition- Asia at Delhi University. The participants at this meeting were largely those working on food security and international trade issues. In this workshop, presentations included;

• The Doha round negotiations and the use of protective tariffs in agriculture.
• The use of the US Farm Bill to subsidise American farmers.
• The final WTO Dispute Panel findings
• The relationship between the WTO and the Cartagena protocol on Biosafety
• The problems of implementing labelling and traceability legislation within India and the international and trade issues this raises.