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| Biotech Updates |
| EU-US Forum Issues Recommendations on Ag Biotechnology - December 22, 2000 |
| In May President Prodi of the European Commission and President Clinton
of the United States to form a EU-US Biotechnology Consultative Forum.
Composed of 20 people, with each president appointing 10, the forum had
free reign to address any issues of biotechnology.
They chose to
focus on biotechnology and agriculture, and to emphasize crops and to ignore
for the time being livestock.
Although the report is described as a "consensus view", it seems that while the words are agreed, their meanings differ. For example, in the key area of labeling, the report recommends "...the EU and the US should establish content-based mandatory labeling requirements for finished products containing novel genetic material."The vital term is "content-based." For people seeking the broadest
mandate for mandatory labeling, the phrase will likely be interpreted to
mean, "If it contains recombinant DNA, then it must be labeled."
For people seeking to limit mandatory labeling to composition and identity,
"content-based" will likely be interpreted to mean "contains something
that changes
The entire report is available at the website below. Report of the EU-US Biotechnology Consultative Forum
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| For more information, contact:
Tom Zinnen 425 Henry Mall Madison WI 53706 608-265-2420 zinnen@biotech.wisc.edu |
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