EU REGULATORY COMMITTEE: AUSTRIA TO VOTE AGAINST BIOTECH

UNCLAS VIENNA 002595 SIPDIS SIPDIS, SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT FOR EBB/TPP/ABT AND EUR/AGS DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USTR GENEVA FOR USTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD TBIO ECON EAGR AU SUBJECT: EU REGULATORY COMMITTEE: AUSTRIA TO VOTE AGAINST BIOTECH CORN AND POTATO VARIETIES REF: STATE 140452 ¶1. (U) On October 5, post forwarded reftel talking points to the relevant offices in the Ministries of Health (MoH),Agriculture and Environment, and Economics. We followed up on October 9 with Michel Haas, Head of the MoH's Department of Biotechnology. The MoH has the lead on this issue in Austria. ¶2. (SBU) Haas told us that Austria will vote against the approval of the corn and potato varieties. The GoA maintains that there is not sufficient evidence to confirm the safety of these products. Haas said the GoA believes that current methods to analyze biotech varieties, particularly to measure the quantity of biotech events, are inadequate. As a consequence, Austria will continue to vote against biotech varieties, even if EFSA has determined they are safe. MCCAW#