ABSTRACT
A number of developing countries, supported by a few environmental non-governmental organizations, wanted rapid progress towards a biosafety protocol. The interventions of the parties in the plenary discussion of biosafety in the first days of the Jakarta meeting likewise reflected the differences. Countries that had a moderate or advanced capacity for the technology wanted to ensure that the biosafety negotiations and the protocol that might result from them would not be a hindrance to the domestic development of biotechnology. Norway was on record as wanting a strong biosafety protocol that would be adopted as rapidly as possible. Norway’s position made us suspect that the Scandinavian countries in the European Union (EU) held similar positions. Switzerland seemed to want a protocol but was concerned about the content. The EU, represented by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark, argued forcefully for a biosafety protocol that would be limited to the ‘transboundary transfer’ of living modified organism.
