After being hammered over the last four months with Roundup-cancer jury verdicts totalling about $4 billion, Bayer is looking to shut down all litigation via the "Texas Two-Step" bankruptcy tactic. The bankruptcy manoeuvre gets its name from the use of a Texas state law that lets companies split their assets and liabilities into separate units, then place the unit loaded with liabilities into bankruptcy to drive a global settlement. “The pursuit of this strategy looks like a strong sign that the company is more interested in delay than honouring the legal rights of cancer patients or a comprehensive settlement at a fair price,” said Melissa Jacoby, a University of North Carolina law professor and bankruptcy expert. Though a federal appeals court and a US bankruptcy judge in New Jersey have shot down J&J’s attempts to use a unit’s Two-Step bankruptcy case to persuade the plaintiffs suing it to settle, the strategy still “allows defendants to shut down all tort litigation indefinitely”. Bloomberg

 

 

Since Mexico imposed its restrictions on GM corn in tortillas last February as precautionary measures to protect public health and corn biodiversity, the US government has repeatedly justified its challenge to the policies under the countries' trade agreement with the claim that Mexico’s policies are not based on science. As US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last August when the US case was filed under the formal dispute mechanism of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), “Mexico’s approach to biotechnology is not based on science and runs counter to decades’ worth of evidence demonstrating its safety and the rigorous, science-based regulatory review system that ensures it poses no harm to human health and the environment.” Mexico has now filed its formal response to the US in the trade dispute. Published March 5, Mexico shows that it has the latest independent science firmly on its side. As the Mexican government notes in its 200-page response, “Far from there being a consensus on the safety of GMOs, scientific evidence points to various negative effects on health, on native corn and on the environment, derived from the cultivation and consumption of GM corn.” IATP

 

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