Brasília, March 27, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The controversy over the sale of the transgenic soybean crop produced in the South of Brazil appears to have reached a conclusion. Yesterday afternoon (26), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a Provisional Executive Order (MP) determining rules for commercializing the six million tons of genetically modified beans. Presidential spokesman, André Singer, explained that the President was only awaiting the final position of the Agriculture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies before signing the MP, since the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Germano Rigotto, had already approved the text prepared by the government.

The governor, who had access to the text of the MP, guaranteed that it permits the sale of the transgenic soybeans on domestic and foreign markets and establishes penalties for farmers who insist on planting genetically modified seeds in Brazil. "Commercialization will be allowed inside and outside the country," Rigotto said.

The spokesman explained that the rules for commercializing the transgenic soybean crop were formulated by the Presidential Advisory Staff, in consultation with the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, which held opposing positions on the issue.

The impasse over the cultivation and commercialization of genetically modified seeds in Brazil began at the start of this year and led the government to create an inter-ministerial group to come up with a solution to the problem. At the beginning of March, the government decided to uphold the ban on the cultivation of transgenics in the country, but it recognized the need to commercialize the crop that was already planted, because it would be a contradiction to permit the waste of soybeans and at the same time combat hunger in the country. (DAS)