ABSTRACT
The issue of documentation lies at the heart of the functioning of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Providing information on the content of shipments containing living modified organisms (LMO) is a requirement of the protocol. The negotiating groups argued their basic positions until very late in the process, without showing any degree of flexibility whatsoever. The issue of documentation was negotiated first in a contact group chaired by Francois Pythoud of Switzerland. The trade in agricultural commodities is a complex system. It involves major industrial sectors and millions of farmers and consumers all over the world. The one negotiating groups advocated the inclusion of commodities in the advance informed agreement procedure, or at least in some sort of notification system. An LMO that has been approved for deliberate release into the environment nationally, and which may be exported as a commodity, shall be notified via the Biosafety Clearing-House.
