On September 16-26 Katy Lee, IGTC Secretariat, traveled to Sao Paulo and Natal in Brazil to conduct a working visit with IGTC member association Associação Nacional dos Exportadores de Cereais (ANEC) and to participate in the 2018 Global Low Level Presence meeting on September 27 and 28.

Working Visit
To begin this mission, the IGTC Secretariat was welcomed by the Associação Nacional dos Exportadores de Cereais (ANEC - www.anec.com.br) during the week of September 18. This working visit provided the IGTC with an opportunity to coordinate with ANEC on IGTC policy files and programs.

GLI
This year's GLI meeting took place September 27-28 in Natal, Brazil. During the general session Tyler Bjornson and Krista Thomas of Canada Grains Council (CGC), an IGTC member association, took the floor on behalf of the IGTC to present evidence to an audience of government representatives about the need for science and risk-based LLP policies for grain trade facilitation.

An important element of the industry participation at this event was the revised policy document of the Global Alliance on Ag Biotech Trade (GAABT - www.gaabt.org), which addresses the potential for trade disruptive situations owing to the asynchronous approval of products of plant biotechnology.

In Brazil, governments worked to establish actions to be completed in the intercessional GLI period; to further regulatory cooperation; and to improve understanding about opportunities and challenges related to adopting the practical approaches to LLP outlined in the GLI statement.