Government convenes meeting to accelerate key seed regulation decision

Argentina's government is intensifying efforts to gain consensus on its potential adherence to the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). A virtual meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, bringing together the Mesa de Enlace (a coalition of agricultural organizations) and the seed industry with experts from UPOV.

The session will feature Yolanda Huerta, Deputy Secretary-General of UPOV, who will explain the international convention's key aspects and address participant queries. This meeting represents a crucial step in the government's strategy to advance Argentina's accession to the UPOV convention, a commitment made in an agreement with the United States. The administration seeks to build preliminary consensus among producers and companies before submitting the proposal to Congress.

Sources indicate this meeting serves as a final technical consultation phase. The objective is to ensure all involved sectors possess identical information before making definitive decisions regarding the future of seed regulations. Simultaneously, agricultural and seed industry representatives are expected to resolve key points of contention in the coming weeks. These include the self-use of self-pollinating seeds (primarily soybeans and wheat) and the determination of applicable land area thresholds.

Experts will analyze various criteria to define which producers might qualify for exceptions, potentially setting a threshold based on planted area or other indicators. The National Seed Institute (Inase), under the Secretariat of Agriculture, organized the meeting. Its goal is to ensure no conceptual ambiguities remain regarding the international regulation's scope. The government hopes this clarity will shift the debate towards unifying the contentious points, allowing participants to form informed opinions on the convenience of accession.

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After this stage, someone will be able to say whether they are in favor or against, or whether they consider accession to be convenient or not. What they will no longer be able to say is that they do not understand what is being discussed.