The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety 1

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (or Biosafety Protocol – BP) is a multilateral agreement administered by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that represents a tightly formulated set of binding rules governing international shipments of living modified organisms (LMOs), ² including trade in LMOs that are agricultural commodities directly used for food and feed or subsequently integrated into processed products. The BP was adopted in Montreal on 29 January 2000 after nearly five years of intense negotiations. The analytical methodology chosen for the present analysis benefits from a very extensive negotiating experience in biotechnology and biosafety and relies on official documents in order to illustrate the successive steps toward the achievement of a consensus. Because it is “neither a pure environmental nor a pure trade agreement” (Falkner, 2000), the resulting agreement is particularly complex and reflects unique dynamics.