China's environmental protection department on Tuesday voiced its
concern that the country could become a laboratory for foreign
companies' transgenic products due to a lack of legislation on the
safe use of biotechnology.
A
document released by the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) said
some foreign companies could take advantage of loopholes in Chinese
law to bring transgenic products into the country, making it "a
laboratory for transgenic products" and posing unknown health risks
for the Chinese people.
Meanwhile, in the pursuit of economic interests some people in
China were blindly developing transgenic technology, without
considering possible risks to the environment and human health over
a long period, the SEPA document said.
Due to the lack of legislation on the acquisition, sharing of
interests in and patents for genetic resources, some of which may
hold the key to a cure for disease or improving grain harvests,
many foreign companies had been unable to legally obtain resources
in China, while some had spirited the resources overseas, the SEPA
document said.
China needed laws to ensure the safe use of biological technology,
and to protect its diversified genetic resources from abuse or
theft by other countries, said SEPA official Wang Dehui.
The administration was now working with the Science and Technology
Ministry on the draft of a regulation on biological safety, which
was likely to become law in the future, Wang said.
China still lacked a nationwide law on the integrated management of
research, trials, production and cross-border transfers of living
modified organisms (LMOs), he said, stressing that existing
regulations made specific requirements but were far from being
unified for better efficiency.
Preparing legislation to protect genetic resources and prevent the
introduction of alien invasive species which could destroy China's
ecosystem, was also underway, he said.
(Xinhua News
Agency May 21, 2002)