Highlights and images for 25 October 2019

Negotiations
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – ITPGRFA
Resumed 9th Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing (OWG-EFMLS-9) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Summary

Highlights for Friday, 25 October 2019

From L-R: Teresa Agüero Teare, Manrique Lucio Altavista, and William Solano Sánchez, Latin America and the Caribbean

On Friday, the Working Group addressed elements of the draft resolution to be forwarded to the Governing Body. In the afternoon, Co-Chair Hans Hoogeveen (the Netherlands) presented the Co-Chairs’ compromise proposal on a package of elements, including: benefit-sharing payment rates under the single access and subscription systems; a provision on information or genetic sequence data; and a provision on the implementation and review of the enhanced Multilateral System (MLS). In the morning, participants discussed the section of the draft resolution referring to elements of the revised Standard Material Agreement (SMTA), with focus on:

the rights of farmers and indigenous communities related to material in the MLS;

the relationship between intellectual property rights and farmers’ rights;

the importance of the MLS in enabling access to plant genetic resources to a wide range of recipients;

exemptions from benefit-sharing payments, including for public institutions in developing countries;

linkages among provisions on exemptions from payments in the draft resolution and the threshold for payments under discussion in the SMTA; and

alternative provisions on fund allocation under the Benefit-sharing Fund.

Afternoon discussions addressed elements of the draft resolution on the amendment of Annex I of the Treaty (list of crops in the MLS). Participants debated a draft provision allowing parties to declare a limited number of species native to their territory that they will not make available to the MLS.The Co-Chairs’ compromise proposal included:

benefit-sharing payment rates under the single access and subscription systems, including: 2% of the sales of the commercialized product, minus 30%, for products that are not available without restriction to others for further research and breeding, under the single access system; 0.2% of the sales of the commercialized product, minus 30%, for products that are available without restriction under the single access system; and 0.015% under the subscription system;

clauses specifying, under both systems, that the benefit-sharing payment obligations reflect the value of information, including genetic sequence data, directly derived from or directly associated with the MLS material in question; and

a clause stating that the review of implementation in 2025 will include the status of ratifications of the amended Annex I, the level of user-based and other income, the number of subscribers, and the availability of MLS material.

Co-Chair Hoogeveen invited participants to engage in informal consultations and consultation with capitals, in preparation for the final day of negotiations on Saturday.

IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) meeting coverage, has provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from the Resumed OWG-EFMLS-9. The summary and analysis report is now available in HTML and PDF.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis

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