| Abstract: | For the past two years, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)--which includes the United States, most of its European allies, and Japan--have been discussing how to set up international guidelines to regulate the emerging biotechnology industry. A May 1985 first draft of the guidelines spawned many objections, and now a revised draft, called "Safety and Regulations in Biotechnology," has encountered mixed responses from U.S. federal agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency generally supports the document, but the State Department, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture have significant objections to its tone and substance, particularly in regard to the specificity of safety controls over the commercial development of recombinant DNA organisms used in large-scale production and for agricultural purposes. |
