Codex ad hoc

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Codex Ad hoc Biotechnology Task Force:

USA Codex Biotechnology Pre-Meeting

in Washington

underscores major differences on

vital question: Where do we go from here?

Copyright © 2005 The Law Loft

August 30^{th 2005} -

US chief delegate Dr. Bernice Slutsky chaired the US delegation Codex biotechnology public pre-meeting in Washington, D.C., an event designed to get public input before the task force meeting in Japan. At the upcoming meeting of the Codex Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, delegates representing Codex member countries will ask themselves and each other the question: What new work should the ad hoc biotechnology task force take up next? The US pre-meeting in Washington gave members of American industry and the public an opportunity to express their views on US draft positions.

Ever since the Codex Alimentarius Commission approved the formation of a new Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology in 2004, country members of the ad hoc task force have been considering which topic they should take up next. What they decide isn’t just an academic question. Whatever the ad hoc task force decides will be transformed into Codex standards and guidelines that will, in turn, become the legal benchmarks against which national laws and regulations on biotech foods can be measured. That means whatever the ad hoc task force ultimately decides is likely to influence, if not out and out control, what shows up on your dinner plate.

At their September meeting, country members of the ad hoc task force will decide whether they should start drafting a new international standard on: transgenic animals, including fish, or nutritionally enhanced plants and biopharming (as in pharmaceuticals), or comparative food composition analysis or low level unauthorized presence of genetically engineered foods in authorized foods. The ad hoc’s budget being limited, only one or two of these projects, at the most, is likely to be chosen. “Resources are such that it is likely that the task force can only tackle one new project,” explained Dr. Slutsky.

And what does the US favor? “Our priority is the low level project. We propose to identify those where safety assessment would be appropriate,” said Dr. Slutsky at the beginning of the meeting. “Both the US and the EU have made low level a top priority,” she added. Dr. Slutsky explained that by low level, the United States means “the low level presence in food and animals of substances derived from recombinant DNA in plants.” “Countries are going to be increasingly focused on this,” she predicted because “There will be low levels of biotech in the food supply.”

The low level project may be popular with the US government but it was definitely controversial with the Washington audience where experts from academia expressed a variety of objections, often conflicting, to almost every premise in the US position.

Japan by contrast to the United States has apparently expressed an interest in working on nutritionally enhanced plants and biopharming next. Still other countries have expressed an interest in foods derived from transgenic animals, “not a topic of high priority for us,” commented Slutsky.

Which proposal or proposals will win? The US delegate made a prediction. Has she underrated the importance of the Japanese wallet?

The new work project will be either transgenic animals or the low level proposal or both predicted Dr. Slutsky. Dr. Slutsky’s prediction makes sense given the fact that both the United States and the European Union support the low level project. The combination of the USA and the EU on the same side of an issue has often overwhelmed opposition to projects in the past. Still, one wonders here. Japan has provided major financial support to both the joint expert consultation on biotechnology and the ad hoc consultations. Has Dr. Slutsky underestimated the power of the Japanese wallet? We will know the answer to that question soon. The five day task force meeting begins on September 19, 2005.