First Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Kuala Lumpur, February 23-27, 2004
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
March 4, 2004
The United States appreciates the opportunity to participate in the 1st Meeting of the Parties (MOP1) for the Cartagena Protocol, convened by the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kuala Lumpur.
Since the United States is currently not a party to the CBD, we cannot become a party to the Protocol. However, we would like to see the Protocol practically and effectively implemented. We believe that this can be done in a manner that protects biodiversity, ensures continued smooth flow of trade, and is consistent with existing international obligations. We are committed to enhancing the capacity of governments to make informed decisions about products that may contain living modified organisms (LMOs). To this end:
- We have provided $360,000 to help develop the Biosafety Clearing House (BCH), including developing a "tool kit" and sponsoring three regional workshops in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, to identify national and regional capacity building needs for implementation of the pilot phase of the Clearing House.
- We have also developed a publicly searchable database of genetically engineered crop plants that have completed all recommended or required reviews for food, feed or planting use in the U.S. This web site is now accessible through the Protocol's Biosafety Clearing House and will be demonstrated here in Kuala Lumpur this week. We hope it will provide a model for other countries.
- We have developed and will soon make available a software template to assist countries in developing their own databases compatible with the BCH. We will be working with UNEP and GEF to provide assistance on how to use this template.
- As a major donor to the Global Environment Facility and the UN Environment Program, we are a major contributor to the $38.4 million UNEP-GEF project on development of national biosafety frameworks in over 100 countries.
- Finally, we support biosafety capacity building through the USAID Program for Biosafety Systems, a $15 million, five-year project launched in May 2003.
We are mindful that government and non-government stakeholders alike are looking to MOP1 to take forward the work of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Cartagena Protocol (ICCP) in order to achieve the Protocol's objective of ensuring the safe transfer, importation and use of LMOs and adequate protection of biodiversity.
The U.S. is committed to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and is a leader in protecting, preserving and restoring important ecosystems and their species. This commitment is reflected in the vibrant, ever-growing range of public and private conservation and benefit sharing programs in the U.S. It is also reflected through our bilateral assistance and debt reduction programs and our contributions to regional and international organizations and financial institutions, which totals $1 billion a year. We are also a major voluntary donor to the CBD’s financial mechanism.
At the same time, we firmly believe that agricultural biotechnology offers tremendous potential for addressing pressing global concerns. Biotechnology is a powerful tool for developing new crop varieties that could help fight famine and provide tangible environmental benefits. Over the past decade, the use of crops engineered to be pest resistant has significantly decreased the use of chemical pesticides, improving water quality and reducing the exposure of farmers to hazardous chemicals. The adoption of herbicide tolerant varieties has increased the use of farming practices that reduce erosion and agricultural runoff, thereby conserving valuable topsoil and improving water quality. Bio-engineered crops are in development that will have improved nutritional properties, such as increased protein or added vitamins; others will be capable of flourishing under conditions of drought or high salinity, allowing increased food production in marginal soils and reducing the need to convert new land to agriculture.
The goals of protecting biodiversity and maintaining trade flows are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they can and should be mutually reinforcing. This is the opportunity and the challenge offered by the Cartagena Protocol
In this spirit, we are pleased to inform the participants of this week’s proceedings that the United States, Canada and Mexico have signed an arrangement that outlines how the Protocol’s documentation requirements for bulk commodity shipments should be implemented among our three countries. We believe this arrangement is consistent with the Protocol's objective of protecting biodiversity and demonstrates our willingness to work constructively towards a practical and workable implementation of the Protocol. Together with Canada and Mexico, we are happy to provide to interested countries further information about this arrangement.
We look forward to engaging this week in a fruitful dialogue with partner countries and stakeholders that moves beyond rhetoric and enables us to forge a constructive process toward implementation of the Cartagena Protocol based on four fundamental principles: (1) science-based decision making; (2) the free exchange of information and expertise; (3) effective and workable interpretations of the Protocol's provisions; and (4) consistency with existing international obligations.
Achieving the Protocol’s objective will require cooperation and goodwill among all participants. The United States is here with the hope that this spirit of cooperation will imbue our discussions in the coming days.
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