The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry responded to U.S. criticism, especially from soybean producers eyeing the Japanese market, that obligatory labeling of such products would constitute a nontariff trade barrier, the sources said.

The ministry also considered the opposition from domestic producers and distributors concerned about possible additional investment costs required to meet the proposed rule, the sources said.

The farm ministry will instead issue a nonbinding administrative instruction to clarify if the produces were genetically engineered, a policy likely to draw criticism from some Japanese consumer and health groups, the sources said.

The government will present its latest food policy to a joint food standards meeting between the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to be held in Canada at the end of next May, the sources said.

The Japanese government has already endorsed 20 foodstuffs under six categories as products developed on the basis of gene recombination technology that are marketable in the country.

These products, most of them imported, include soybeans which will not rot due to exposure to herbicides and maize which is capable of killing insects eating it.

In addition to the U.S., Canada has been opposed to labeling requirements, while the European Union conditionally supports mandatory labeling.

The WHO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) say gene engineering in the agricultural sector should be approved if the new products' contents remain basically the same as they were before genetic engineering.

The long-term effects on human bodies and the environment have yet to be determined.

Copyright 1997

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1/5/98