Treaties in Collision? The Biosafety Protocol and the World Trade Organization Agreements

On January 29, 2000, over 130 countries adopted the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Biosafety Protocol or Protocol). The Protocol establishes international procedures applicable to the transboundary movement of bioengineered living organisms (referred to in the Protocol as "living modified organisms," or "LMOs"). The adoption of the Protocol marked the close of over four years of intensive, contentious, and often emotional negotiations regarding the multibillion-dollar trade in bioengineered organisms.