US embassy cable - 05ROME2915

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 
 
 
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 2005ROME02915 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED