What is Advance Informed Agreement (AIA)?
The Protocol prescribes an `advance informed agreement’ (AIA) procedure that must be followed (unless expressly waived by the party of import), prior to the first intentional transboundary movement of LMOs for intentional introduction into the environment of the Party of import. In these cases, the exporter must provide a detailed, written description of the LMO to the importing country in advance of the first shipment. The importer is to acknowledge receipt of this information within 90 days and then explicitly authorize the shipment within 270 days or state its reasons for rejecting it. (However, the absence of a response does not imply consent.) The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that recipient countries have both the opportunity and the capacity to assess risks that may be associated with the LMO before agreeing to its import. However, a number of LMOs are excluded from the AIA procedure taking into account the specific activity or the intended use of the LMO involved. Thes
