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Correa, Carlos M. --- "Enforcing Border Measures: Importation of GMO Soybean Meal from Argentina" [2009] ELECD 368; in Li, Xuan; Correa, M. Carlos (eds), "Intellectual Property Enforcement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property Enforcement

Editor(s): Li, Xuan; Correa, M. Carlos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446526

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Enforcing Border Measures: Importation of GMO Soybean Meal from Argentina

Author(s): Correa, Carlos M.

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

5. Enforcing border measures:
importation of GMO soybean
meal from Argentina
Carlos M. Correa1

Requests for the detainment of Argentine soymeal shipments at the
ports of Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom,
a multi-million dollar claim over royalties and suits filed against
European importers are some of the visible facts in an unusual
dispute between the US multinational Monsanto on the one hand,
and farmers and the Argentine government on the other. Curiously
enough, the legal battle takes place in Europe rather than where the
exported soybean was grown and processed. This chapter explains
the reasons for as well as the possible consequences of this trans-
national litigation. It illustrates the possible impact on legitimate
trade of broad border measures, particularly when applied to alleged
patent infringements.


THE SEED OF DISCORD

Soy-related products (particularly for feed) are Argentina's main
export product to the European market, surpassing meat. Argentine
soybeans and their derivates contain genes that were inserted arti-
ficially into the seeds in order to confer the plants resistance to
glyphosate, a widely used herbicide. These are, hence, by-products
of a genetically-modified (GM) soybean.
Nowadays, GM soybeans account for over 90 per cent of the total
soybean harvest in Argentina. Their rapid and broad dissemination
is one of the factors explaining the soybean expansion in Argentina's
agricultural production: the share of soybean in total crops doubled
(standing at nearly 50 per cent) between the 1996/97 and 2004/05


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