I would like to address the protection of intellectual property as it relates to biotechnology. My office is not competent to assess human risk and environmental risk issues, so I will not discuss them. But there are some other risks that we have not considered at this conference, namely, the risk in terms of U.S. competition and competitiveness in the world market.

When we discuss these issues, it is important to understand that we operate in a global economy. The concept of a world trading system is relatively new. Certainly, it is a new focus for the United States and many smaller U.S. corporations. In this context, there is a risk that domestic biotechnology policy decisions may affect U.S. competitiveness.