MEP Struan Stevenson blames EU for cloning confusion

Stevenson’s warning comes as fellow Scottish MEP, SNP member Alyn Smith, has called for an inquiry to be held over the issue.

Conservative MEP Stevenson claimed that EU rules around the import of meat and dairy products from clones and their offspring are at present “confused and inadequate” and it is the “worrying lack of safeguards” that has allowed the incident to occur.

“That’s why MEPs in Brussels recently called for the Commission to produce an urgent resolution on cloned imports while in the meantime banning all meat and dairy imports from outside the EU unless they can be accompanied by a certificate.

“In these cases, it appears the rules have been flouted but that simply highlights how easily the current law can be circumvented.

“We must have a more stringent regime that gives consumers confidence in the system. People must know where their meat and milk is coming from.”

He added that if by any chance imported meat or dairy products could come from clones or their offspring, it should be clearly labelled: ‘This may have come from a cloned animal’.

Meanwhile SNP MEP Alyn Smith, a member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, has called for calm in the wake of reports that bulls born in Scotland harvested from a cloned American did indeed enter the food chain.

“My suggestion is that a cross party inquiry be held in Scotland into the issues, to ventilate the existing science, and to scout out the likely effects of future developments. I would hope that such an inquiry would be able to bring Scotland as a whole into the discussion so that we can weigh up the benefits and disadvantages of this new technology on a rational basis, not as a knee jerk reaction to a dubious importation,” he said.

>>No need to panic over cloning says Quality Meat Scotland

>>Cloned meat enters UK food chain via US cow

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