Codex Secretary Comments on Biotech Task Force

UNCLAS ROME 002915 SIPDIS FAS FOR OSEC/BSLUTSKY, FAS FOR DWILLIAMS STATE FOR EB/JBOBO FROM U.S. MISSION TO THE U.N. AGENCIES IN ROME REF: STATE 147159 E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC EAGR ETRD FAO WHO SUBJECT: Codex Secretary Comments on Biotech Task Force ¶1. In an August 30 meeting, Codex Commission Secretary, Kazuaki Miyagishima, discussed prospects for the upcoming meeting of the Codex Ad Hoc Task Force on Biotechnology with Ag MinCoun. Miyagishima expects the discussion over the Task Force's workplan to be difficult and therefore plans to attend the September 19- 23 meeting himself. ¶2. Miyagishima hopes the Task Force will be able to agree on 2 to 3 issues for future work. He acknowledged that a number of countries support work on "adventitious presence," but have very different ideas about what the term means. In his view, further work on foods derived from plants could be very helpful for developing countries. He expects some countries to resist launching work on transgenic animals because of the lack of experience in this area. However, he suggested work on transgenic fish might be a good alternative as it would involve similar issues and there is already commercial experience with fish. Cleverley NNNN 2005ROME02915 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED