Administrative Arrangement on technical cooperation between SFA PVPO, CHINA and CPVO
The PVP Office, State Forestry Administration (SFA), and the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) have decided on 15 November 2017 to initiate technical cooperation in the area of plant variety rights. The SFA is the Agency responsible for registering plant variety rights for forest trees, bamboo, woody vines, fruit trees (nut fruit trees) and woody plants for oil, juice, medicinal and ornamental use in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The CPVO is the European Union Agency responsible for registering plant variety rights in the European Union. The SFA and the CPVO operate in the field of plant variety protection (PVP) with similar operational structures and process a high numbers of applications.
The cooperation activities to be performed under the administrative arrangement (hereinafter the “AA”) with a duration of three years (2018-2020) would contribute to creating synergies between the SFA and the CPVO in different operational and administrative areas. Exchange of best practice and technical information with the aim of closer international harmonisation is hoped to encourage breeders to make new varieties available and will offer farmers and consumers a better access to adapted varieties meeting their needs. Activities would involve training in Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability (DUS) tests of the staff of the SFA and the CPVO in the respective territories. The CPVO will involve entrusted examination offices in the EU when implementing the AA. Where appropriate, the CPVO will also involve other stakeholders such as breeders’ organisations.
One of the main purposes of this AA is to enhance the environment for breeders to acquire PVP in the EU and in the PRC through the establishment of wide-ranging and flexible mechanisms for guiding and furthering mutual cooperation in the areas.
The SFA and the CPVO envisage to cooperate on administrative, operational and training activities of common interest such as:
- Enhancing the PVP system in the PRC;
- Streamlining the PVP application procedure;
- Training activities and exchange of experience in PVP administration, DUS examination and use of relevant tools;
- Explore and share enforcement-related practice.
The SFA and the CPVO will bear their own costs arising from any activity implemented under this AA, unless otherwise arranged separately in writing. The SFA and the CPVO may decide to review the cooperation activities deployed under this AA and to evaluate their implementation. The evaluation may include identifying areas in which cooperation should be strengthened, improved, suspended or terminated and new areas for joint action. The EU PVP system and the Chinese PVP system are number one and two in the world in terms of the number of applications received each year. This emphasizes the importance of the project.