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Saturday, October 10, 2015

Farmers ‘may lose seed rights’ under TPPA

Leaked document says seed companies get more power under Trans-Pacific free trade pact.
Pertanian,TTPA
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian small farmers may lose their right to exchange seeds under new rules after the Trans-Pacific free trade agreement is ratified, according to activist groups.
Quoting from leaked documents from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations, the groups said seed companies would gain more power: they would enjoy longer monopolies, farmers would be barred from exchanging seeds, and protections on biosafety and against biopiracy would be removed.
The two activist groups, US-based Public Citizen and Penang-based Third World Network, made their comments based on a document published at Wikileaks which was said to be the chapter on intellectual property rights.
The leaked document described by Wikileaks are “the highly sought-after secret ‘final’ agreed version of the TPP chapter on intellectual property rights”. It was dated October 5.
According to the document, Malaysia would be required to institute new rules and comply with several international conventions after it ratified the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which which creates the world’s largest free trade area involving 12 countries across the Pacific Rim.
Malaysia must sign UPOV 91, the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which bars seed exchanges among farmers, commonly practised in many developing nations, crop and variety rotation.
Malaysia’s plant variety protection law allows seed exchanges among smallholders with less than 0.2 hectares.
The final text of the agreement is expected to be made public next month. It will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat for a vote in early January.
The two groups said other provisions provide for patents on plant-derived inventions and patents for new uses of existing agricultural chemicals.
Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam would also need to sign the Budapest Treaty which simplifies the procedure for patents on microorganisms, the two groups said.

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