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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
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