Sept Codex Meeting in Japan - Turkish Input

UNCLAS ANKARA 004774 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/JACK BOBO USDA FOR FAS/BIG/DAWN WILLIAMS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO EAGR ECON TU SUBJECT: Sept Codex Meeting in Japan - Turkish Input Ref: State 147159 ¶1. On August 12, AgCounselor met with Dr. Fatih Yildiz from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Dr. Fatih is member of the faculty on food engineering and will be Turkey's representative at the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology (Task Force) in Chiba, Japan September 19-23, ¶2005. ¶2. Dr. Yildiz who spent 14 years in the United States at several universities is also a member of Turkey's Codex Committee. This committee has 7 members including 5 from the Ministry of Agriculture and 5 from the Ministry of Health. Dr. Yildiz represents the Ministry of Health on the committee. ¶3. According to Dr. Yildiz, Turkey has not yet formalized its position for the meetings in September. On August 22, he will convene a meeting with all interested parties in Ankara to discuss the topic. Post will try to get a summary of that meeting to send to Washington. ¶4. Dr. Yildiz did mention that Turkey has been trying to align its regulations with those of the European Union. He stopped short in saying that Turkey would support only EU proposals and he would try to provide us with comments on the U.S. position as soon as possible. Dr. Yildiz mentioned that Turkey supported the nomination of Dr. Karen L. Hulebek as chair of the Codex Ad Hoc committee. MCELDOWNEY