Argentina – Brazil – Paraguay – Uruguay (Memorandum of Understanding)

This is a successful case of an agreement between four regional economies that have a long history of cooperation built upon commonalities and similarities in their regulatory systems. This offers an opportunity for APEC economies that may share cultural and regulatory similarities to explore a collaborative mechanism that would work for them.

The Memorandum of Understanding between authorities at the Ministry of Economy of the Argentine Republic, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Federal Republic of Brazil, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of the Republic of Paraguay, and Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, was signed in June 2024, with the objective of establishing an international biosafety network–Agencias de Bioseguridad en Red para la Biotecnología (ABRE-Bio/Biosafety Agencies Network for Biotechnology).

The platform intends to coordinate efforts to ensure safety in the use of modern biotechnology and aims to promote scientific collaboration and ensure biosafety in the field of biotechnology. This initiative looks to strengthen collaboration in science, technology, and innovation, with a focus on the biosafety of modern biotechnology products, including genetically modified organisms, and the understanding of biosafety and risk assessment.

This regional coordination mechanism will promote the exchange of professionals and scientific information related to biosafety and risk assessment of genetically modified organisms and the determination of the regulatory status of products derived from new breeding techniques (NBTs). It will help reduce costs and time for developers and allow for the establishment of similar procedures for biosafety assessment, paving the way for analyzing the possibility of harmonizing criteria for the biosafety assessment of modern biotechnological products. The intention is also to strengthen the synchronization of biotechnology event approvals in the four countries to avoid asynchrony that could lead to unnecessary trade interruptions and low presence. This will strengthen trade relations while ensuring security for the countries’ productive agroecosystems and food safety for humans and animals to promote sustainable production systems and food security in the region and around the world.