With the State of Palau having been the 50iest country to ratify the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety under the Convention of Biological Diversity the international agreement, which regulates transboundary movement of genetically modified organisms - or "Living modified organisms" as the Protocol calls them - will enter into force 3 months later. Its entry into force will coincide with the next ministerial meeting of the WTO in Cancun, where GMOs will be one of the most contentious issues. The global Protocol provides inter alia that member states can prohibit the import of GMOs on the basis of the precautionary principle. Whether WTO regulations would supersede the Protocols provisions or not was one of the hardest battles fought between the US lead "Miami group" and developing countries supported by the EU. The US has not signed the Protocol, and not even its umbrella Convention on Biological Diversity.</p><p><a href="http://www.biodiv.org/doc/press/pr-2003-06-13-bs-02-en.pdf">Press release of the United Nations Environment Programme</a></p><p><a href="http://www.biodiv.org/biosafety/ratification.asp">official web site of the Biosafety Protocol with all details</a></p><p><a href="http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/oeil/oeil_ViewDNL.ProcedureView?lang=2&procid=5973">EU implementation legislation of the Protocol</a>