US embassy cable - 03AMMAN6505

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