Summary
Highlights for Friday, 21 June 2019
On Friday, the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) continued negotiations on outstanding items regarding the revision of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) and the draft resolution on enhancement of the Treaty's MLS, with focus on payment rates for benefit-sharing under the subscription and single access systems, and genetic sequence data from MLS material.The Working Group acknowledged that additional time is required to finalize negotiations on the outstanding items, following consultations at the national and regional level. As a result, the meeting was suspended. The Working Group will reconvene for three days before the eighth meeting of the Treaty's Governing Body, to be held from 11-16 November 2019, in Rome, Italy, which is expected to adopt the amended Annex I of the Treaty (list of crops in the MLS) and the revised SMTA. Nevertheless, participants expressed satisfaction with progress achieved, particularly with regard to compromises reached on amending Annex I of the Treaty and on a package of measures to simultaneously adopt the revised SMTA and the amendment of Annex I.Following approval of the interim report of the meeting, Co-Chair Hans Hoogeveen (the Netherlands) expressed his appreciation to delegates, Secretariat, and staff supporting the negotiations, as well as the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) team for coverage. The meeting was suspended at 5:46 pm. The ENB summary and analysis of the meeting will be available on Monday, 24 June 2019.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from OWG-EFMLS-9, which is now available in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis
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