13 WTO Members Support Policy Approaches to Enable Innovation in Agriculture
The International Statement on Agricultural Applications of Precision Biotechnology was released in Geneva by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on October 26, 2018. At the Committee’s meeting on November 1-2, 2018, WTO members discussed the role that precision biotechnology techniques can play in agricultural innovation, with a view to providing farmers around the world with access to tools that increase productivity while preserving environmental sustainability.
The communication is being circulated at the request of delegations from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, the United States of America, and Uruguay. Thirteen member countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Paraguay, Uruguay, the United States of America and Uruguay), 10 of each planted biotech crops in 2017, have supported the international statement. The effort in drafting the statement began in Argentina during the “Seminar on Genome Editing for Regulators”, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in April 2018. The Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States has also supported the statement…
