The Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) member-countries are now gearing up for a high-level policy dialogue on agricultural biotechnology (HLPDAB) in Ha Noi, Vietnam next month following the conclusion of the Conference on Biosafety Policy Options for APEC Economies held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel from January 16-18.

The Philippines, which hosted the three-day conference together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is optimistic that the conference will strengthen the APEC member-countries' resolve to adopt a high standard of biosafety regulation.

Stephen Yarrow, a director of Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said the conference exceeded expectations and hailed the Philippine government for hosting the event.

He said that in conclusion, APEC Economies learned from the experiences of others and more importantly, learned of the importance of sharing the technology, experience, as well as the responsibility of making such technology in agriculture.

"With biotechnology and adopting the products of biotechnology, we have to be responsible. We also need to keep in mind that agricultural products move around the world. Now we have the biotechnology versions of these products so we have to be responsible. We need to be careful in importing for our country but we have to respect the exporters' point of view," he said.

Participants to the conference, mostly policy makers, regulators and experts from different APEC member-countries, agreed that the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety should remain as a "standing item" for discussion at the next few meetings.

The conference is in preparation for the 5th HLPDAB that will be held in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, on February 26-27. One of the main issues for discussion will include the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety and biotechnology policy development, implementation and communication.

Yarrow said that socio-economic factors are a reality and these factors must be taken into account from a positive, as well as negative point of view as a consequence of the application of modern biotechnology in agriculture.

Socio-economic factors, he said, should be handled and must be carefully considered in the context of science-based risk assessments and the World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations of individual countries.

Australia's Bill Bowen said the participants were convinced that there's a need to further study and compare the APEC Economies' obligations under the WTO and the Cartagena Protocol.

Bowen said the two trade agreements should be harmonized by APEC member-countries.

Dr. Saturnina Halos, a consultant of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on biotechnology, said there's a need to hold more dialogues to thresh out issues concerning the different interpretation of the Cartagena Protocol as compared to the commitment of member-countries under the WTO.

The participants also agreed that there's also a need to carefully weigh trade impacts to both importing and exporting countries and impacts on research and technology development investments in coming up with bio-safety regulations noting that imposing such regulation may entail cost that might exceed or overcome the benefit that genetically modified crops, food or products of modern biotechnology.