Chapter 5 - International regulations impacting trade in GMOs: reconciling the Biosafety Protocol with the WTO regime

Abstract

The international trade involving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) continue to spark controversies due to the complexities that go beyond the realms of trade and/or the environment. Currently, the international trade in GMOs and products thereof are regulated according to the rules agreed by World Trade Organization's (WTO) Members at the end of the Uruguay Round, particularly those spelt out in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. This chapter analyses the existing architecture of global governance in the control of transboundary movement, transit, handling, and use of all living modified organisms (LMOs) by reviewing these WTO's agreements as well as key decisions by the WTO's Appellate Body to understand their impact on trade in GMOs. Other disciplines arising from specific multilateral agreements that were negotiated outside the parameters of purely trade, in particular Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), also have a bearing on the transboundary movement of GMOs. A discussion is therefore included on the conflicting provisions arising at the intersection of Convention on Biological Diversity's Biosafety Protocol with the WTO Agreement that may have implications on the conservation of agrobiodiversity. Suggestions are included on the modes and mechanisms that can be used by the global community to resolve these conflicts.