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<DIV>BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 22 15 December,
2003<BR></DIV>
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<DIV>CBD WORKING GROUPS PONDER RELATIONSHIP WITH WIPO<BR><BR>The respective
roles of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and<BR>the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the conservation,<BR>sustainable
use and sharing of benefits related to biological resources<BR>and traditional
knowledge (TK), led to extensive discussions at both the<BR>CBD Working Groups
on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) and on Article<BR>8(j), which deals with
protecting the knowledge of indigenous and local<BR>communities. In particular
during debates in the ABS Working Group, many<BR>developing countries remained
adamant that the CBD rather than WIPO<BR>should take the leading role in
discussing ABS-related disclosure<BR>requirements.<BR><BR><BR>ABS Working Group
explores options for international regime<BR><BR>A large part of the discussions
at the meeting of the ABS Working Group<BR>from 1 to 5 December in Montreal,
Canada, focused on possible elements<BR>for an international ABS regime, as
mandated by the World Summit on<BR>Sustainable Development Plan of
Implementation adopted in September 2003<BR>(see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 5
September 2003,<BR><A
href="http://www.ictsd.org/biores/wssd_updates/english/update5.htm">http://www.ictsd.org/biores/wssd_updates/english/update5.htm</A>).<BR>Following
lengthy discussions, countries forwarded a heavily bracketed<BR>text to the
CBD's seventh Conference of the Parties, to take place in<BR>February 2004 in
Malaysia. One of the few recommendations that countries<BR>could agree on was
that COP-7 should mandate the ABS Working Group to<BR>negotiate and elaborate
the international regime.<BR><BR>Mirroring dynamics at WSSD, Mexico on behalf of
the Like-minded Group of<BR>Megadiverse Countries (LMMC) would have liked to see
negotiations on a<BR>legally binding instrument start as soon as possible. The
EC, in<BR>contrast, took a more cautious approach, preferring to focus
on<BR>implementing the Bonn Guidelines on access to genetic resources
and<BR>benefit-sharing at the domestic level. Countries were also divided
over<BR>whether the regime should cover the products and derivatives of
genetic<BR>resources, as advocated by the LMMC.<BR><BR>The relationship to WIPO
proved the most contentious point in<BR>discussions on measures to ensure
compliance with prior informed consent<BR>(PIC) provisions on mutually agreed
terms (MAT), such as requiring the<BR>declaration of origin of a genetic
resource in patent application. The<BR>LMMC, along with many other developing
countries, pushed for discussions<BR>on these issues to take place in the CBD
context. They objected to<BR>strengthening the collaboration with WIPO due to
concerns that their<BR>interests would not be adequately addressed in a forum
dealing with<BR>intellectual property rights. <BR><BR>Switzerland -- supported
Norway, the EC and Thailand -- is one of the<BR>advocates for discussing
disclosure requirements in WIPO in the context<BR>of WIPO's Patent Cooperation
Treaty (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 28<BR>November 2003, <A
href="http://www.ictsd.org/biores/03-11-28/story2.htm">http://www.ictsd.org/biores/03-11-28/story2.htm</A>).
The US,<BR>Japan, Canada and Australia, however, would prefer these discussions
to<BR>take place in WIPO's Intergovernmental Committee (ICG) on
Intellectual<BR>Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and
Folklore.<BR><BR><BR>Article 8(j) Working Group focuses on TK<BR><BR>The
question of how to avoid overlap with WIPO's work, and in particular<BR>with the
ICG, also arose during discussions on possible elements of a<BR>sui generis
system for the protection of TK during the meeting of the<BR>Article 8(j)
Working Group from 8 to 12 December, also in Montreal.<BR>Overall, the meeting
was described as constructive and<BR>solution-oriented, in particular compared
to the ABS Working Group that<BR>took place just before. In the final
recommendations regarding a<BR>possible sui generis system, the Working Group
asks COP-7 to request the<BR>Working Group to, inter alia, make recommendations
regarding the<BR>international ABS regime with a view to including sui generis
systems<BR>and TK protection systems; assess the role of databases and registers
in<BR>protecting TK; and explore the potential of existing forms
of<BR>intellectual property rights to contribute to achieving Article
8(j)<BR>objectives. Only the references to international law in the
preamble<BR>remained bracketed in this section.<BR><BR><BR>Additional
Resources<BR>For daily coverage of the meetings, see IISD
Linkages,<BR>http://www.iisd.ca.<BR><BR>Documents of the ABS Working Group,
including the WIPO Technical study<BR>on disclosure requirements related to
genetic resources and TK:<BR><A
href="http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=ABSWG-02">http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=ABSWG-02</A>
<BR><BR>Documents of the Article 8(j) Working Group:<BR><A
href="http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/tk/wg8j-03/official/wg8j-03-01-en.doc">http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/tk/wg8j-03/official/wg8j-03-01-en.doc</A>
<BR>.<BR><BR>ENB, Vol 9, No 268, 8 December 2003; ENB, Vol. 9, No 273, 15
December<BR>2003.<BR></DIV>
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<DIV>RESOURCES<BR><BR>If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins,
etc.) you<BR>would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy
or<BR>review by the BRIDGES staff to Marianne Jacobsen,
mjacobsen@ictsd.ch.<BR><BR>THE STATE OF THE FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD 2003.
By the Food and<BR>Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This report analyses issues
such as:<BR>food insecurity and HIV/AIDS, water and food security, causes of
food<BR>emergencies in developing countries, yields and water requirements
of<BR>irrigated and rain-fed agriculture and the importance of agriculture
and<BR>agricultural trade in food security. For further information
see:<BR>http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/j0083e/j0083e00.htm<BR><BR>"The WTO and
the Cartagena Protocol: International Policy Coordination<BR>or Conflict?" by
Grant E. Isaac in CURRENT AGRICULTURE, FOOD & RESOURCE<BR>ISSUES (4, 2003)
116-123. This article presents a case study of the<BR>implications of
overlapping multilateral paradigms – the World Trade<BR>Organization and an MEA
known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety –<BR>for international market
access of biotechnology-based agri-food<BR>products. For further information,
see:<BR><A
href="http://128.233.156.252/j_html/isaac4-1.htm">http://128.233.156.252/j_html/isaac4-1.htm</A><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2>und hier noch der Hinweis auf die Veröff.
von ETC vom Öko-Institut Freiburg:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Oligopoly Inc. - Maerkte werden von wenigen Unternehmen beherrscht <BR>Die
"Action group Erosion, Technology and Concentration" hat den <BR>neusten Stand
bei Großun-ternehmen, die die Maerkte bei <BR>Pharmazeutika, Lebensmittel,
Saatgut und Agrochemikalien anfuehren, <BR>veroeffentlicht. Danach sind ueber
die Haelfte der 100 groeßten <BR>oekonomischen Einheiten transnationale
Konzerne. Wal-Mart, die <BR>weltweit groeßte Lebensmittelhandelskette, stellt
eine groeßere <BR>oekonomische Einheit dar als der schwedische Staat. Die
groeßten <BR>Lebensmittelhersteller sind Nestlé, Kraft Foods und Unilever. Die
<BR>Liste der Saatguthersteller wird von Dupont (Pioneer), Monsanto und
<BR>Syngenta angefuehrt. Das deutsche Saatgut-Unternehmen KWS AG steht
<BR>weltweit an siebter Stelle. Bayer CropScience belegt im Saatguthandel
<BR>den 10. Platz. Zu den groeßten Agrochemie-Konzernen zaehlen Syngenta,
<BR>Bayer, Monsanto und BASF. Zum ersten Mal werden auch Unternehmen der
<BR>Nanotechnologie aufgefuehrt (etc group: Oligopoly, Inc. - <BR>Concentration
in Corporate Power: 2003; November/December 2003, Issue <BR>82; <A
href="http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/oligopolyfinal.pdf">http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/oligopolyfinal.pdf</A>).
</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
size=2>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>"Wir brauchen keine
Bio-Terroristen, wenn wir Gentechniker haben."<BR>Independent Science Panel (<A
href="http://www.indsp.org">www.indsp.org</A>)</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>