| Governments aiming to
improve their plant protection systems to facilitate agricultural
trade with other countries -- especially if they have joined or
are considering joining the World Trade Organization -- have approached
FAO for assistance with updating their legislation or drafting new
legislative instruments. Projects have been approved or are under
way in Azerbaijan, Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Eritrea, Iran, Mauritius, Nepal, Nigeria and Tunisia. A regional
project in the Caribbean region has led to the preparation and approval
of draft plant protection law to be used as a model for the members
of the Caribbean Community.
For the FAO Legal Officers and consultants providing
this technical assistance, the New Revised Text of the International
Plant Protection Convention and the WTO Agreement on the Application
of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) serve as
the basis for updated laws and regulations.
For the second category (seeds, plant variety protection,
and biotechnology), countries such as Iran and Mauritius have sought
assistance with developing basic seed laws to establish the necessary
structures for effective seed certification and trade. In Syria, legal
assistanceturned on implementation of Syria's pending responsibilities
under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources in Food
and Agriculture.
In recent years many countries have been assessing the implications
of the WTO TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement,
which requires signatory countries to apply the obligations of the
world's most important intellectual property conventions. Article
27 of the Agreement requires member countries to provide for the
protection of plant varieties by patents, by an effective sui generis
system, or by both. Member countries of FAO are inquiring about
their duties and options under the Agreement, and its implications
for their national legislation. . Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia,
and Malaysia have sought FAO assistance in developing legislation
of the products of biotechnology. Swaziland, as well, wishes to
prepare legislative instruments specifically to regulate genetically
modified organisms.
Occasionally, FAO member countries request assistance
in developing legislation on other plant-related matters, such as
those captured in projects on the establishment of a mandatory health
certification scheme for citrus in Trinidad, the creation of a regional
locust commission for several countries of Central Asia, the launch
of a regional food safety, animal and plant health agency for the
Caribbean, and the harmonization of measures for fruit fly control
in a number of North African and Gulf countries. Kenya received assistance
regarding legislation to establish the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate
Service, which will be charged with enforcing the plant protection
law, the seed law and the plant variety protection law – all
prepared collaboratively using national and FAO legal expertise.
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