USA And EU Reach Accord On Drug Test Standards

The USA and the European Union have reached basic agreement oncoordinating standards that would allow other agencies to test, inspect and certify manufacturing standards for testing pharmaceuticals and other products, according to President Bill Clinton.

He made the announcement as other cooperative agreements were being signed last week at the annual ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the Netherlands. Dutch prime minister Wim Kok, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said that he was hopeful that the final details for the mutual recognition agreements could be worked out within a few days.

EU "Backdown " The breakthrough was made possible by a backdown by the EU on a critical point, according to a US administration official, who noted that the USA had been insisting that any MRA accord should include the right of US regulators to take action against products if they felt health or safety standards warranted it.