US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE536

UNCLAS PRAGUE 000536 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NCE, EB/TPP/ABT/BTT/DMALAC AND EUR/ERA 
STATE PASS USTR FOR JMURPHY 
USDA FOR FAX/BIG/BSIMMONS 
VIENNA FOR FAS/QGRAY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, EAGR, TBIO, PREL, EZ, EUN 
SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC TO SUPPORT COMMISSION ON BT10 CORN 
VOTE 
 
REF: STATE 68058 
 
1.  We discussed the impending vote in the Standing 
Regulatory Committee on Food and Animal Health, relating to 
imposing a certification requirement on U.S. corn gluten feed 
that may contain BT10 corn, with two officials at the 
Ministry of Agriculture on April 14.  Both Milena Vicenova, 
Director of the Department for Food Safety, Technology and 
the Environment, and Miroslav Elckner, a specialist in the 
same department, told us that the Czech Republic will support 
the Commission proposal to impose a certification 
requirement.  We argued strongly that the requirement should 
be delayed until Commissioner Kyprianou has a chance to meet 
with his USG counterparts on April 17.  Vicenova and Elckner 
seemed sympathetic to such an idea.  Elckner will be in 
Brussels for the Regulatory Committee meeting on April 15. 
He and Vicenova both expressed regret that they had not heard 
our arguments earlier, while the Czech position was being 
formulated, although they recognized that the Commission has 
acted rather quickly in this case.  They agreed to discuss 
the idea of delaying implementation until after April 17 
among themselves. 
 
2.  Elckner said that the requirement will not affect the 
2005 harvest of corn, which is believed to be BT10-free.  He 
also said that the Regulatory Committee is officially basing 
its decision not on BT10 content but on failure to follow 
rules for distribution of the offending feed products. 
HILLAS