WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/407/Add.2
7 November 2003
(03-5957)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
Addendum
The present document reproduces the information on technical and financial cooperation
activities relevant to the implementation of the TR IPS Agreement, which has been received from the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) by m eans of a communication dated 4 November 2003.
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Page 2
Communication of Mr. Giuliano Pucci, Legal Counsel,
to the Chairman of the Council for TRIPS
Rome, 4 November 2003
I have the honour to refer your letter dated 26 August 2003 to the Director of the FAO
Liaison Office in Geneva requesting updated information on technical and financial cooperation
programmes operated by the Organization in the area of intellectual property that are relevant to the
implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
During the last twelve months, the Organiza tion has continued to liaise with Governments
that are requested to become party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture, adopted by the FAO Conference in 2001.  It should be noted that the Treaty shall
enter into force on the ninetieth day after the deposit of the fortieth instrument of ratification,
acceptance, approval or accession.  As of today, 32 instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval
or accession have been deposited with the Director-General of FAO.
As you are aware, the Treaty is in harmony  with the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) and has a number of provisions of direct relevance to the matters being addressed, under your
chairmanship, by the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.  In particular,Article 9, for the first time in a binding international agreement, makes provision for Farmers'
Rights, in recognition of the collective innovation on which agriculture is based.  A further important
and innovative part of the Treaty is contained in Articles 10 to 13 (Part IV), which establish a
Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing that applies to a list of crops that cover about
80% of the world 's food calories intake from plants.
In addition, I am pleased to communicate that over the past year, the FAO Legal Office in
collaboration with other responsible divisions of the Organization has undertaken a number of
technical assistance activities to Governments as well as at regional and/or sub-regional level, in the
formulation of policies, strategies and legislation in the field of plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture and related matters.
In Kenya, assistance has been provided in the drafting of a Plant Variety Protection Bill
which recognizes plant breeders' rights and is in tandem with relevant provisions in UPOV 1991.  In
Syria, the Legal Office is monitoring the enactment of the legislation to strengthen plant genetic
resources conservation and sustainable use, which we helped draft last year.  This legal instrument
recognizes and gives force to farmer's rights and to  rights of local communities, as well as to access
and benefit sharing.  A similar assistance project will be soon launched in the Republic of Guinea.
As part of a capacity strengthening for agricultural trade negotiations project in Sudan in
September, the Legal Office and the Economics and Trade Division of the Organization conducted a
week-long national basic training workshop with a full day of discussion devoted to the protection ofplant varieties and related intellectual property rights issues.  The training targeted Government
officials taking part in Sudan's WTO accession negotiations.
An extensive study entitled The Seed System in Ethiopia: Review of Policies and Laws has
also been carried out.  It concludes that laws that regulate plant breeders' rights, farmers' rights andcommunity rights, and access to genetic resources have not been put in place yet.  This study will
soon be published on our website.IP/C/W/407/Add.2
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Jointly with relevant FAO divisions, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture, and other international organizations, we are preparing a series of regional workshops on
the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).  These
workshops will build on the work that the Legal Office has undertaken to prepare a Guide to the
ITPGRFA.
I am also pleased to confirm that the Legal Office has continued to improve its
comprehensive up-to-date computerised legislative database, FAOLEX.  Selected texts of major
significance pertaining to FAO's mandate, including Plant Genetic Resources, seeds and plant variety
protection might be consulted in extenso or summarized.
I hope that such information will enable the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights, under your chairmanship, to have  a picture as complete as possible of FAO's
technical assistance in this field.
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