[Pirateninfo] BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 22 15 December, 2003 (selectionMS)

[Martin Sundermann]

BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 22    15 December, 2003


CBD WORKING GROUPS PONDER RELATIONSHIP WITH WIPO

The respective roles of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the conservation,
sustainable use and sharing of benefits related to biological resources
and traditional knowledge (TK), led to extensive discussions at both the
CBD Working Groups on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) and on Article
8(j), which deals with protecting the knowledge of indigenous and local
communities. In particular during debates in the ABS Working Group, many
developing countries remained adamant that the CBD rather than WIPO
should take the leading role in discussing ABS-related disclosure
requirements.


ABS Working Group explores options for international regime

A large part of the discussions at the meeting of the ABS Working Group
from 1 to 5 December in Montreal, Canada, focused on possible elements
for an international ABS regime, as mandated by the World Summit on
Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation adopted in September 2003
(see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 5 September 2003,
http://www.ictsd.org/biores/wssd_updates/english/update5.htm).
Following lengthy discussions, countries forwarded a heavily bracketed
text to the CBD's seventh Conference of the Parties, to take place in
February 2004 in Malaysia. One of the few recommendations that countries
could agree on was that COP-7 should mandate the ABS Working Group to
negotiate and elaborate the international regime.

Mirroring dynamics at WSSD, Mexico on behalf of the Like-minded Group of
Megadiverse Countries (LMMC) would have liked to see negotiations on a
legally binding instrument start as soon as possible. The EC, in
contrast, took a more cautious approach, preferring to focus on
implementing the Bonn Guidelines on access to genetic resources and
benefit-sharing at the domestic level. Countries were also divided over
whether the regime should cover the products and derivatives of genetic
resources, as advocated by the LMMC.

The relationship to WIPO proved the most contentious point in
discussions on measures to ensure compliance with prior informed consent
(PIC) provisions on mutually agreed terms (MAT), such as requiring the
declaration of origin of a genetic resource in patent application. The
LMMC, along with many other developing countries, pushed for discussions
on these issues to take place in the CBD context. They objected to
strengthening the collaboration with WIPO due to concerns that their
interests would not be adequately addressed in a forum dealing with
intellectual property rights. 

Switzerland -- supported Norway, the EC and Thailand -- is one of the
advocates for discussing disclosure requirements in WIPO in the context
of WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 28
November 2003, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/03-11-28/story2.htm). The US,
Japan, Canada and Australia, however, would prefer these discussions to
take place in WIPO's Intergovernmental Committee (ICG) on Intellectual
Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.


Article 8(j) Working Group focuses on TK

The question of how to avoid overlap with WIPO's work, and in particular
with the ICG, also arose during discussions on possible elements of a
sui generis system for the protection of TK during the meeting of the
Article 8(j) Working Group from 8 to 12 December, also in Montreal.
Overall, the meeting was described as constructive and
solution-oriented, in particular compared to the ABS Working Group that
took place just before. In the final recommendations regarding a
possible sui generis system, the Working Group asks COP-7 to request the
Working Group to, inter alia, make recommendations regarding the
international ABS regime with a view to including sui generis systems
and TK protection systems; assess the role of databases and registers in
protecting TK; and explore the potential of existing forms of
intellectual property rights to contribute to achieving Article 8(j)
objectives. Only the references to international law in the preamble
remained bracketed in this section.


Additional Resources
For daily coverage of the meetings, see IISD Linkages,
http://www.iisd.ca.

Documents of the ABS Working Group, including the WIPO Technical study
on disclosure requirements related to genetic resources and TK:
http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=ABSWG-02 

Documents of the Article 8(j) Working Group:
http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/tk/wg8j-03/official/wg8j-03-01-en.doc 
.

ENB, Vol 9, No 268, 8 December 2003; ENB, Vol. 9, No 273, 15 December
2003.


RESOURCES

If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you
would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or
review by the BRIDGES staff to Marianne Jacobsen, mjacobsen at ictsd.ch.

THE STATE OF THE FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD 2003. By the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This report analyses issues such as:
food insecurity and HIV/AIDS, water and food security, causes of food
emergencies in developing countries, yields and water requirements of
irrigated and rain-fed agriculture and the importance of agriculture and
agricultural trade in food security. For further information see:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/j0083e/j0083e00.htm

"The WTO and the Cartagena Protocol: International Policy Coordination
or Conflict?" by Grant E. Isaac in CURRENT AGRICULTURE, FOOD & RESOURCE
ISSUES (4, 2003) 116-123. This article presents a case study of the
implications of overlapping multilateral paradigms – the World Trade
Organization and an MEA known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety –
for international market access of biotechnology-based agri-food
products. For further information, see:
http://128.233.156.252/j_html/isaac4-1.htm


und hier noch der Hinweis auf die Veröff. von ETC vom Öko-Institut Freiburg:
Oligopoly Inc. - Maerkte werden von wenigen Unternehmen beherrscht 
Die "Action group Erosion, Technology and Concentration" hat den 
neusten Stand bei Großun-ternehmen, die die Maerkte bei 
Pharmazeutika, Lebensmittel, Saatgut und Agrochemikalien anfuehren, 
veroeffentlicht. Danach sind ueber die Haelfte der 100 groeßten 
oekonomischen Einheiten transnationale Konzerne. Wal-Mart, die 
weltweit groeßte Lebensmittelhandelskette, stellt eine groeßere 
oekonomische Einheit dar als der schwedische Staat. Die groeßten 
Lebensmittelhersteller sind Nestlé, Kraft Foods und Unilever. Die 
Liste der Saatguthersteller wird von Dupont (Pioneer), Monsanto und 
Syngenta angefuehrt. Das deutsche Saatgut-Unternehmen KWS AG steht 
weltweit an siebter Stelle. Bayer CropScience belegt im Saatguthandel 
den 10. Platz. Zu den groeßten Agrochemie-Konzernen zaehlen Syngenta, 
Bayer, Monsanto und BASF. Zum ersten Mal werden auch Unternehmen der 
Nanotechnologie aufgefuehrt (etc group: Oligopoly, Inc. - 
Concentration in Corporate Power: 2003; November/December 2003, Issue 
82; http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/oligopolyfinal.pdf). 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wir brauchen keine Bio-Terroristen, wenn wir Gentechniker haben."
Independent Science Panel (www.indsp.org)
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