At its eighth meeting, the COP urged the subsidiary body mandated to negotiate the international regime to complete its work by 2010. The countdown has now started with approximately 2 years left for the finalization of the international regime.

The business community should participate actively in this process to ensure that its concerns are taken into account, in order to develop an international regime which will meet the needs of all stakeholders by 2010.

Constructive proposals should be put forward to ensure that the international regime responds to the needs of all those involved in access and benefit-sharing, from the initial provider, through the various intermediaries involved, to the final user of genetic resources which may be involved in the commercialization of a product based on genetic resources and perhaps associated traditional knowledge.

The current situation is characterized by a growing feeling of mistrust between users and providers of genetic resources. The ongoing negotiations provide the opportunity to develop an international system of access and benefit-sharing which provides certainty to both users and providers: certainty to providers that benefits from the use of their genetic resources will be shared in a fair and equitable manner; certainty for users that clear, transparent and simple rules and procedures for access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing will be established.

The business community, as an important user of genetic resources in various sectors, has an important role to play in these negotiations in order to ensure that the outcomes will be pragmatic and practical, and that the international regime will facilitate the process of access and benefit-sharing while ensuring that the providers of genetic resources get the assurance that they will be receiving a fair and equitable share of benefits arising out of the use of their resources.

Views from several companies in a number of sectors, and others, are expressed in this issue of the newsletter. I am sure this will prove a useful contribution to WG-ABS-6. A common thread amongst many of the articles is the need for strengthening dialogue — I am thus extremely grateful to The Netherlands for the funding, through a Letter of Intent signed in December 2007, of two meetings on ABS and business in 2009 and 2010. We will report on progress on this initiative in subsequent issues of the newsletter.