January 2013: The report of the fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Technical Committee on the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) and the Multilateral System (MLS) under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR), held from 6-7 November 2012, in Rome, Italy, has been made available online.

The Committee heard a report on the implementation of the MLS and progress made on the information technology systems that support it and the functioning of “Easy SMTA,” a voluntary tool developed by the Secretariat that combines SMTA generating and reporting functions. With regard to the inclusion of material in the MLS, the activities for the first round of projects under the Benefit-sharing Fund had been concluded, and material resulting from those projects, including from Costa Rica, Morocco and Peru was being incorporated in the MLS.

The Committee also heard reports on recent developments of relevance to the implementation of the MLS and the SMTA, including the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) concluded under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It requested the ITPGR Secretariat to continue and further intensify its collaboration with the CBD Secretariat along the lines established in the Joint Initiative and Memorandum of Cooperation between them, in order to promote practical and harmonious interfaces between general ABS requirements and the operation of the Treaty and its MLS, both nationally and internationally. It also requested the Secretariat to continue coordinating with the Secretariat of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) in order to promote complementarity in the work of the two bodies.

The Committee further addressed the policy and principles on the management of intellectual assets of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), highlighting the need for transparency and availability of information on their application. Consideration of options for reflecting clarifications to the SMTA was suspended pending regional consultations. With regard to the collection, conservation and distribution through the SMTA of plant variety samples protected by plant breeders’ rights, the Committee advised that it is possible for such material to be put in the MLS, provided that its basic principle is respected; that all material in it should be freely available to others for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. In the view of the Committee, intellectual property rights that are not compatible with such free access would need to be waived for the material to be transferred under an SMTA.

In view of unfinished discussions, the meeting is expected to continue at a date and venue to be announced. [Publication: Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Technical Committee on the Standard Material Transfer Agreement and the Multilateral System]