Wellington, February 20 – In the course of the two-weeks mission to New Zealand and Australia, the Secretary General visited the CIOPORA members in the region and had meetings with potential members, associations and governmental contacts.
At a bilateral meeting with the policy advisors in charge of the New Zealand's Draft PBR Law, the CIOPORA delegation, including Wendy Cashmore and Emma Brown, addressed several concerning issues to the breeders' community, including EDV, compulsory licenses and the accession of New Zealand to the Act 1991 of UPOV. Following up on written comments to an “options paper” submitted by CIOPORA in summer 2019 in the framework of the public consultation, CIOPORA learned that, unfortunately, the Ministry had ignored many proposals of the breeder community but developed a so-called “Cabinet Paper” with only minor changes. The policy advisors emphasized that the Cabinet Paper will not be changed and will serve as a basis for drafting the PBR Law and the further deliberation by the legislative committees and the Parliament. In the course of the meeting, it also became apparent that the proposal of the Ministry is not to formally accede to the 1991 Act of UPOV but, instead, to produce a PBR law similar to UPOV 1991.
CIOPORA expressed its concern with the Cabinet Paper’s approach to EDV, that follows the Australian narrow interpretation. CIOPORA also emphasized that the lack of direct protection for harvested material can, in the long term, be detrimental to New Zealand's progressive fruit breeding sector. CIOPORA will continue to monitor and contribute to the legislative process in New Zealand.
Picture credit: Dan Freeman, Unsplash.com.