Cartagena Biosafety Protocol

With the next COP-MOP meeting approaching in Mexico in December 2016, the IGTC’s policy on the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol has been finalised and is being disseminated among the IGTC’s global networks.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and was the imperative leading to the formation of the IGTC. 

The CBP strongly implicates the grain trade as it engages in the international movement of products that may contain LMOs derived from modern biotechnology. In June 2016, the 170 Parties to the Protocol cover more than 85% of the world’s grain trade movements. Important grain trading ‘Non-Parties’, such as Canada, Australia, Argentina and the USA, may comply with CBP provisions when exporting to countries that have ratified.

The industry’s efforts over the past decade have aimed to assure that the provisions enacted and utilized as a consequence of the Cartagena Protocol do not undermine the world-wide commerce of grains, or the ability of the grain trade to help underpin the successful implementation of the Protocol.

The policy can be read here.