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Harmonization of seed regulations will promote the seed industry in the Asia/Pacific region
Editorial by Dr. Jagveer S. Sindhu, Director, The Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA)
March 2006

The Asia and Pacific region is home to some 55% of the world’s population, most of whom depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. About 73% of the world’s farming households are in this region which, however, has only 32% of the world’s agricultural land. Of the global seed market of US$30 billion, Asia/Pacific accounts for only $ 7.5 billion. Farm saved seed represents for 80-90% of all seed used by farmers.

In 1994, the Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) was established in order to organize the seed industry in this region. APSA has done an excellent job during its first decade, but a lot more needs to be accomplished.

Movement of seed across borders in the region is constrained at times by the existing regulations, with the result that good seed is not always made available to the farmers according to their requirements. Such regulations need to be simplified and harmonized in order to ensure availability of quality seed to the farmers in the region. The first priority is to address two such regulations:

  • regulations on intellectual property rights (IPR), and

  • phytosanitary regulations.

Intellectual property rights issues for seeds are governed mainly through the Plant Variety Protection (PVP), as biological patents are not yet applicable in most of the countries in Asia/Pacific. A review of the PVP situation in the region suggests that whereas 11 countries have joined UPOV (all but China adopted UPOV 91), 10 countries have enacted sui-generis laws, as provided  under Article 27,para 3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO. About six countries are still at the draft stage and 16 have yet to start the process. There is a dire need to harmonize and enforce PVP in the region. UPOV and APSA have recently taken some initiatives but these will not be successful without support of the governments. Growth of the seed industry and overall agricultural production will largely depend upon implementation of appropriate PVP laws in different countries.

Regulations on phytosanitary measures are very important because, under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), quarantine pests need to be monitored in order to control their spread to the areas where they are not reported to exist. This requires regulation of seed imports and exports, since seed is a potential career of quarantine pests. The WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) aims at maintaining the sovereign right of any country to provide the protection it deems appropriate, while ensuring that those sovereign rights are not misused for protectionist purposes and do not result in unnecessary barriers to international trade.

The SPS Agreement provides for the use of international standards, guidelines and recommendations. This also encourages the harmonization of such regulations at the regional level. APSA took this initiative and helped the governments of five important agricultural countries in the region (Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia and the Philippines) to harmonize these regulations within the framework of IPPC and as per provisions of the SPS Agreement of WTO. The outcome of this exercise included the following:

  • Out of 241 quarantine pests listed for nine agri-horticultural crop species, only 59 were retained and 182 were dropped. This will reduce the workload and increase efficiency of the plant quarantine laboratories.

  • Time frames for issuance of import /exports permits were standardized and provision for an appeal was made, which was previously absent in the existing laws.

  • Phytosanitary accreditation of private sector and NGOs was accepted and will be implemented soon in the five participating countries.

The efforts for harmonization of such regulations should continue and national governments of the region and IPPC should support such initiatives in other countries of the Asia/Pacific region.

Dr. Sindhu can be reached at director@apsaseed.com

Sponsored by Jondle & Associates P.C. - Specialists in Intellectual Property Law

 


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