WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TE/INF/10 
13 July 2006 
 (06-3395) 
Committee on Trade and Environment  
Special Session Original:   English 
 
 
STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF UNEP ON BEHALF OF THE 
SECRETARIAT OF THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY 
TO THE COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT IN SPECIAL SESSION AT ITS 
MEETING OF 6-7 JULY 2006 
 
 
1. On behalf of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, I wish to thank you 
for the invitation to attend this meeting.  I was re quested by the Executive Secretary to the Convention 
to convey his regrets for not being able to send a re presentative of the Secretariat.  On behalf of the 
Executive Secretary of the Convention, I am pleased  to deliver the following statement, which shall 
brief you on recent developments  with regard to the Conventio n on Biological Diversity and its 
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety that are of relevance to the work of this Committee.   
2. As you know, the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP-8) 
was held in Curitiba, Brazil, from 20 to 31 March 2006.  The third meeting of the Parties to the 
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP/3 ) took place from 13 to 17 March 2006, also in 
Curitiba. 
COP-8 has been a landmark event in the life of the Convention.  For the first time, the 
Ministerial Segment held during the meeting brou ght together over 120 Ministers and Heads of 
delegations in an interactive dialogue which facilita ted the adoption of thirty-four decisions.  I am 
pleased to note that the video message by WTO Di rector-General Pascal Lamy to the Ministerial 
Segment, as well as the active participation of Deputy Director-General Dr. Harsha V. Singh 
contributed substantially to the success of the meet ing by sending a strong message to Ministers that 
international environmental and trade law must be mutually supportive in order to achieve the 
common goal of sustainable development.  
 Access and Benefit sharing (ABS)  
 3. One of the most significant achievements of COP-8 of relevance to your work was the 
adoption of a structured framework and a time-frame for the further elaboration and negotiation of an 
international regime on access to gene tic resources and benefit-sharing. 
4. You will recall that, following a call of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 
negotiations were launched by COP- 7, in February 2004, for the establishment of an international 
regime on access to genetic resources and benefit- sharing.  The existing Ad-hoc Open-ended Working 
Group on Access and Benefit-sharing, mandated to ne gotiate the internationa l regime, convened twice 
in the intersessional period before COP-8 and, as part of its terms of reference, considered the nature, 
scope and possible elements for inclusion in the in ternational regime.  It is worth noting that the 
disclosure of origin/source/lega l provenance of genetic resources and associated traditional 
knowledge in applications for intellectual property ri ghts is being considered as one of the potential 
elements of such an international regime. TN/TE/INF/10 
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  5. COP-8 welcomed the progress made and instruct ed the Working Group to complete its work 
at the earliest possible time before the tenth meeti ng of the Conference of the Parties (COP-10) to be 
held in 2010. 
Invasive Alien Species
 
6. The decision on invasive alien species is also relevant to your work.  In its recent work on 
invasive alien species, the COP identified and analy zed gaps and inconsistencies in the international 
regulatory framework in relation to invasive alien species.  An Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group met 
in New Zealand in May 2005 and identified a lack of formal standards set at the international level to 
deal with some pathways for invasive alien species .  Further to the report of the expert meeting, 
COP-8 requested the Executive Secretary to cons ult with relevant international bodies and 
instruments, including the World Trade Organization,  regarding potential ways to address the lack of 
international standards covering invasive alien species,  in particular animals, that are not pests of 
plants under the International Plant Protection Conven tion, and to report back on the results of these 
consultations.   
7. I am pleased to report that the Secretariat of the Convention is currently consulting with the 
WTO Secretariat on this matter. 
Cooperation  
8. The decision made by COP-8 regarding cooperati on with other conventions and international 
organizations and initiatives is also  of relevance to your work, in  particular in the context of 
paragraph 31(ii) of the Doha Work Programme.  In  this decision, the Ex ecutive Secretary of the 
Convention was requested to liaise with the Secretar iat of the World Trade Organization on relevant 
issues, including trade-related intellectual propert y rights, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and 
environmental goods and services, inter alia , with a view to identifying options for closer 
collaboration, including developing a memorandum of  cooperation to promote the three objectives of 
the Convention.   
9. I am pleased to report that, further to this  request, a meeting took place on 29 May 2006 
between the Executive Secretary to the CBD, Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, and the WTO Director-General, 
Mr. Pascal Lamy, with a view to advance the good working relationship between the two secretariats 
by exploring further opportunities for cooperation. 
The Biosafety Protocol  
10. Let me now turn to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.  As of 20 June 2006, there were 
133 Parties to the Protocol.  As you know, the Protocol  aims to ensure an adequate level of protection 
in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms (LMOs).   
11. The third meeting of the Conference of the Parti es serving as the meeting of the Parties to the 
Protocol (COP-MOP/3) achieved a major breakthrou gh regarding the issue of detailed requirements 
for documentation accompanying shipments of living modified organisms intended for direct use as 
food or feed, or for processing – the so-called LM Os-FFP.  You will recall that Article 18 of the 
Protocol requires each Party to take measures to  identify LMOs subject to transboundary movement 
in accompanying documentation.  With regard to  LMOs-FFP, Article 18.2 (a) requires that the 
accompanying documentation clearly identifies that they “may contain” LMOs and are not intended 
for intentional introduction, as well as a contact poi nt for further information.  However, these 
documentation requirements were not fully resolved  during the negotiations of the Protocol.    TN/TE/INF/10 
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  12. Under the agreement reached so far, Parti es to the Protocol are requested, and other 
Governments are urged, to take measures to en sure that documentation accompanying LMOs-FFP is 
in compliance with the requirements of the country  of import, and clearly provides a number of 
statements specified in paragraph 4 of decisi on BS-III/10.  Transboundary shipments of LMOs-FFP 
need to be accompanied with documentation which, inter alia,  clearly states that the shipment 
(i) contains LMOs, where the identity of the LMOs is known through means such as identity 
preservation systems, and (ii) may contain LMOs, where the identity of the LMOs is not known 
through means such as identity preservation systems.   
13. Parties to the Protocol also noted that, in  accordance with Article 24 of the Protocol, 
transboundary movements of living modified orga nisms between Parties and non-Parties shall be 
consistent with the objective of the Protocol, and fu rther noted that the specific requirements set out in 
paragraph 4 of decision BS-III/10 do not  apply to such movements.   
14. You may also be interested to note that the Par ties to the Protocol took the first steps towards 
the consideration of the need for and modalities for de veloping standards with regard to identification, 
handling, packaging and transport of LMOs.  On this  issue, Parties, other Governments and relevant 
international organizations were invited to subm it to the Executive Secretary views and information 
on the adequacy of existing rules and standards, a nd any existing gaps that may justify a need to 
develop new rules and standards, or to call upon re levant international bodies to modify or expand 
existing ones.   
 Observer status  
15. As regards cooperation, COP-MOP/3 comme nded the Executive Secretary on the recent 
efforts he made towards strengthe ning cooperation in particular w ith the WTO, and requested the 
Executive Secretary to intensify effo rts to gain observer status in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) 
and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committees.  
16. I wish to inform you that, further to this request, as well as a similar request by COP-8, the 
Executive Secretary of the Convention recently rene wed its request for observer status in several 
relevant WTO Committees, in particular the TRIPS Council, and the SPS and TBT Committees.  It is 
believed that a positive consideration of these requ ests would contribute to strengthening cooperation 
and understanding between the two re gimes, thus providing a better basis for further enhancing the 
mutual supportiveness between trade and environment agreements.   
 
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