Genetic Engineering and the World Trade System: World Trade Forum

by Edited by Daniel Wüger , Thomas Cottier

• ISBN13: 9780521883603
• ISBN10: 0521883601
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

While the WTO agreements do not regulate the use of biotechnology per se, their rules can have a profound impact on the use of the technology for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. This book seeks to identify the challenges to international trade regulation that arise from biotechnology. The contributions examine whether existing international obligations of WTO Members are appropriate to deal with the issues arising for the use of biotechnology and whether there is a need for new international legal instruments, including a potential WTO Agreement on Biotechnology. They combine various perspectives on and topics relating to genetic engineering and trade, including human rights and gender; intellectual property rights; traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing; food security, trade and agricultural production and food safety; and medical research, cloning and international trade.

Author Biography

Daniel Wuger is a lecturer at the University of Bern, legal advisor to the Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Justice and a consultant to the NCCR International Trade Regulation project at the World Trade Institute, Bern. Thomas Cottier is Professor of European and International Economic Law at the University of Bern and Director of the Institute of European and International Economic Law. He is also Managing Director of the World Trade Institute.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
List of abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction and systemic issues	p. 1
The many faces of modern biotechnology	p. 3
Genetic engineering, trade and human rights	p. 17
Gender dimensions of biotechnology policy and trade	p. 56
Intellectual property and gene technology: issues at stake and possible options	p. 75
Biotechnology and patents: global standards, European approaches and national accents	p. 77
Intellectual property rights, biotechnology and development: African perspectives	p. 109
Traditional knowledge, biogenetic resources, genetic engineering and intellectual property rights	p. 118
Food security, trade and agricultural production with genetically modified organisms	p. 149
Biotechnology in the energy sector: some implications for developing countries	p. 151
Coexistence and liability: implications for international trade drawn from the Swiss example	p. 175
Food security and agricultural production with genetically modified organisms: a comment	p. 193
Food safety, international trade and biotechnology	p. 203
Trade, environment and biotechnology: on coexistence and coherence	p. 205
Risk regulation, precaution and trade	p. 246
Medical research, cloning and international trade	p. 285
Genetic engineering, free trade and human rights: global standards and local ethics	p. 287
The regulation of human genetics by international soft law and international trade	p. 315
Index	p. 343
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.