ABSTRACT
In a nutshell, the protocol, if reasonably crafted from the Brazilian point of view, would actually protect national interests embodied in the existing national law. The Brazilian delegation had firm views and instructions on most of those points, some of which were eventually reflected in the final text, such as the elimination of the words ‘and products thereof’ after ‘living modified organism(s)’. The advance informed agreement procedures of the protocol presented a more tractable problem to the Brazilian delegation. The principle of advance informed agreement is already embodied in the Brazilian law on genetically modified organisms, so the negotiations consisted more of adapting familiar procedures to a new context than of creating, or resisting the creation of, innovative and unproved ones. The precautionary principle was more an issue internal to the Brazilian delegation than a problem to be dealt with multilaterally.
