representatives from over 138 countries around the world met at Cartagena, Colombia, in mid-February to end years of discussions on an international legal framework to ensure biosafety in the transboundary movements of genetically engineered organisms ( gmo s).

The much-awaited Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was, however, not to be. In a clearly calculated move, a group of six grain-exporting countries, the Miami group