Jordan: No Biotech Regulations

UNCLAS AMMAN 006505 SIPDIS SENSITIVE USDA/FAS/OA/BSIMMONS USDA/APHIS/BRS/JTURNER STATE/EB/DMALAC STATE/OES/HLEE USAID/JLEWIS FDA/RLAKE EPA/JANDERSON CAIRO FOR FAS - ASIF CHAUDRY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR ETRD SENV TBIO TSPL KPAO JO SUBJECT: Jordan: No Biotech Regulations REF: STATE 263456 Sensitive but Unclassified ¶1. (U) According to senior officials of the Jordanian health and agriculture ministries, Jordan does not currently have agricultural biotechnology laws or regulations. They did not preclude that such regulations might be put in place, but did not suggest that any planning was underway to do so. ¶2. (SBU) The Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Awni Taimi, told ECON/C and Ag Specialist that Saudi Arabian biotech labeling requirements were "creating a problem" for Jordan. He said questions had been raised about Jordanian exports to Saudi Arabia of animals and animal products that had been fed U.S.-origin feed. Jordan had no way of determining if such feed contained modified organisms, but suspected that it did given the widespread use of biotech products in the United States. So far, Taimi said, no Jordanian shipments had been blocked by Saudi Arabia, but he was concerned that some could be in the future. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: We do not exclude the possibility that Jordan might one day put in place biotech labeling requirements, although it probably lacks the technical ability to enforce them. The benefits of biotechnology are not well-understood, and the public is, in general, conservative and suspicious of hard to understand innovations, particularly when they come from the West. Post has distributed public affairs materials on biotechnology, including the recent "Economic Perspectives" journal on Agricultural Biotechnology. We could put additional material -- particularly in Arabic, as well as Arabic-language speakers on the subject from the United States or other countries in the region -- to good use. GNEHM