Trading in Risk: The Biosafety Protocol,Genetically Modified Organisms and the World Trade Organisation

Abstract

This article examines the negotiations and final adopted text of the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafetv to the Convention on Biological Diversity. In so doing it argues that the disputes that characterised the protracted process of negotiations, in particular the relationship of the Protocol to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), have not been resolved with the adoption of the final text. In seeking to achieve a compromise the text of the Protocol now firmly embodies a number of contradictory elements. This leaves open the possibility of a dispute in the WTO should a party to the Protocol seek to regulate the import of genetically modified organisms.