Documentation Requirements for Living Modified Organisms for Food or Feed, or for Processing (LMO/FFP's)

To articulate an understanding among Canada, Mexico and the United States of America with respect to the documentation requirements of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety pertaining to living modified organisms intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing. Specifically to clarify documentation requirements such that they fulfill the objectives of the Protocol without unnecessarily disrupting commodity trade.

Documentation requirements for LMOs intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing.

Canada, Mexico and the United States of America entered into a trilateral arrangement to provide practical guidance to the North American grain and oilseeds trade on the documentation requirements for LMO shipments destined for food, feed or for processing. Canada entered into such an arrangement because the detailed requirements of the documentation provision remained unclear as no agreement was reached between countries at the Intergovernmental Committee on the Cartagena Protocol (ICCP) or the technical expert groups on the requirements for Article 18. When the Biosafety Protocol entered into force on September 11, 2003, Canada needed to provide practical guidance to exporters of agriculture commodities, specifically the documentation requirements, in order to ensure food supplies continued to move in a manner consistent with the Protocol. The trilateral arrangement is based on the recommendations of the technical expert group on Article 18 that met in Montreal, Canada in March 2002. The trilateral arrangement is consistent with the objectives of the Protocol. The trilateral arrangement provides an interim arrangement for exporters and importers pending future decisions on the detailed requirements of Article 18.2(a) at the second meeting of Parties. Any permanent approach to implementing the documentation requirements must meet the Protocol's objective of protecting biodiversity based on sound science and be consistent with other international agreements.