SPROUTING UP: BIOSAFETY TALKS LOCKED UP AGAIN

The latest round of negotiations for an international biosafety protocol have again ended in deadlock. The Miami group stopped negotiations in their tracks by explicitly stating that their commercial interest in marketing genetically-modified (GM) food and other products had to take priority over environmental and health concerns. The six countries of the Miami Group (the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) would not make any concessions that might impair the free and unimpeded trade of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). This cluster of major agricultural exporters was opposed by the vast majority of developing countries clustered into the Like-Minded Group (comprising all G77 countries and China excepting Chile, Uruguay and Argentina).

The informal Vienna consultations achieved very limited progress in terms of resolving the three disputed core issues: scope of the protocol, the range of products to be covered by the Advanced Informed Agreement (AIA), and the protocol’s relationship with other international agreements. The AIA procedure obliges countries to ensure that its exporters give prior notification to importing countries to enable them to make a risk assessment of the GMO before import is approved.

The Miami Group proposed instead that countries intending to export such GMOs (and products containing them) should not be obliged to obtain the prior informed consent of the importing countries. This would shift the onus on to the importing countries to keep track of GM approvals and determine the need for risk assessment under domestic legislation. It would also place decision-taking on transboundary movement within the framework of domestic regulation (as far as the WTO allows), rather than under the framework of an internationally binding agreement.

The spokesperson for the Like-Minded Group, Dr Tewolde Egzaibher of Ethiopia, stated that they were prepared to consider "a system of comparable robustness" to the AIA for food, feed and processing, but that these commodities had to be kept within the scope of the Protocol as there was no difference between GM seed earmarked for planting and for food, feed or processing since they carried the same risks.

Although the Miami Group appeared to have been making concessions, it soon became clear that their position had remained unchanged. On the final day, its spokesperson declared that they were not prepared to accept any new obligations on the transboundary movement of GM agricultural commodities, and that they were not prepared to assume any obligations that would limit or prevent exports of such commodities, as they were "unwilling to cause any major disruption" to their agricultural trade system. Given the strength of the current deadlock, it will take a miracle to arrive at an international agreement by the new deadline of January 20-28, 2000, when ministers meet again in Montreal, Canada.

Source: Lim Li Lin, "Biodiversity talks end in deadlock again", SUNS Monitor, Sept 21, 1999