The first relates to the relatively new issue posed by biotechnology and the surrounding environmental and moral issues. It is genetically engineered to be predisposed to develop cancer for the purposes of research. There are many controversies associated with it, including whether patenting of life forms conflicts with the obligations of countries, including Canada, under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. I would simply like to bring to your attention the fact that the question of patenting life forms in Canada has not been the subject of broad public debate. The second caveat relates to the application of dispute settlement to intellectual property rights associated with cultural products.
Similar concerns arise out of intellectual property rights.
We have grave concerns that the trend in trade agreements is to direct IP litigation towards such trade panels as dispute settlement mechanisms, thereby compromising nations and individual creators. While IP rights have a historic base in industrial matters, the tendency is to ever-increasingly apply them to culture, an issue that needs a great deal of public discussion. In the end, the Committee does not want the government to rush into these contentious issues without first completing its consultation stage with the public. That the Government of Canada continue its consultations with the parties concerned so that its position on intellectual property represents the interests of all Canadians. That this policy be defended in the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations.