TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS OF LIVING MODIFIED
ORGANISMS (13078/06)
Letter from the Chairman to Ian Pearson
MP, Minister of State for Climate Change and the Environment,
Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Sub-Committee D considered the above document
and your accompanying Explanatory Memorandum dated 5 October 2006
at its meeting on 1 November.
The Committee was content to clear the proposal
but has asked to be kept informed of progress. It was not clear
to the Committee whether the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety would
prevent a repetition of the spread of infections such as that
of the Varroa mite, which was brought from India to Germany and
is now spreading to other parts of the world. Your advice on this
point would be welcomed.
2 November 2006
Letter from Ian Pearson MP to the Chairman
Thank you for your letter of 2 November 2006
in which you asked whether the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
would prevent a repetition of the spread of infections such as
that of the Varroa mite which was brought from India to Germany
and is now spreading to other parts of the world.
I'm afraid that in fact the Protocol would not
directly stop the spread of this, or indeed any other, infection.
The Protocol exists to regulate transboundary movements of genetically
modified organisms, not the spread of infections.
21 November 2006
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