Biosafety treaty deal

Delegates from 140 countries on Saturday approved a compromise protocol on biosafety intended to govern the international transport of living modified organisms (LMOs).

As approved at the Montreal meeting, the so-called Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety excludes pharmaceutical products from its oversight and does not mandate segregated shipping of LMO products. But it validates use of the precautionary principle to ban imports of LMOs and includes provisions for labeling of commodity shipments...